Turnbull same as Abbott on FTA: Wong

Labor's trade spokeswoman Penny Wong says reports the Liberal Party is launching advertisements labelling anyone opposing the China free trade agreement a racist shows nothing has changed under Malcolm Turnbull.

She says former prime minister Tony Abbott resorted to the race card instead of answering genuine questions about the FTA.

"Now it appears Malcolm Turnbull has taken over where Mr Abbott left off," Senator Wong said in a statement on Sunday.

The government is spending almost $25 million of taxpayers' money on explaining the benefits of free trade agreements.

Shadow assistant treasurer Andrew Leigh says people don't want to see more taxpayer-funded ads in favour of the China deal.

"Australians want to know that the free trade agreement will be accompanied by the usual safeguards on jobs so we can get all the benefits," he told Sky News.

But he said Labor is very keen to come up with an arrangement, which is non-discriminatory and provides employment safeguards, at a time when the Australian jobless rate is higher than during the global financial crisis and youth unemployment is near a 20-year high.

"Labor will have more to say on the specifics of that this week," Dr Leigh said.

Fairfax Media reports the government plans to counter a unions-sponsored anti-FTA campaign with attack ads that accuse "ratbag unions" of stoking racism against the Chinese.