PM chest beating on Italy boats: Marles

Tony Abbott has been accused of chest beating and using the human misery of the migrant boat crisis in the Mediterranean Sea for domestic political advantage.

Labor's immigration spokesman Richard Marles, responding to reports European officials had sought briefings from the federal government about Australia's border protection strategies, said the prime minister was not acting like a statesman.

"It's the low-rent act of a snake oil merchant and he should be called out as such," he told Sky News on Wednesday.