What they said on Day 20 of the campaign

WHAT THEY SAID ON DAY 20 OF THE ELECTION CAMPAIGN

THE BEST LINE

"Of course I can, anyway I'd like to hear what the leader of the opposition has to say."

- Liberal candidate Chris Jermyn is confident he knows his party's Medicare policy but failed to explain it when asked what it is several times.

PRIME MINISTER MALCOLM TURNBULL

"I think on policy matters, when we're addressing questions of Victorian candidates, I think Bill Shorten should be right at the top of the list."

- Malcolm Turnbull deflects a question about Mr Jermyn.

"If you talk about Australia as a whole, are we free entirely from racism? Clearly not."

- Mr Turnbull says there is room to improve in Australian society.

LABOR LEADER BILL SHORTEN

"The fact of the matter is there are still pockets of systemic racism alive in pockets of Australian life."

- Mr Shorten says Australia has a problem with stubborn racism.

"My speech was about identifying the problems, we are not contemplating a financial scheme."

- But the Labor leader won't promise compensation to the stolen generation.

THE SECOND XI

"This man is the deputy prime minister of Australia, he is an absolute idiot."

- Labor's immigration spokesman Richard Marles slams Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce.

"I would really love to see the man be able to get in his boots and do it himself and show us how it is done properly, I just don't think he has been let off the strings."

- Independent senator Jacqui Lambie calls for the prime minister to be let loose.

"Chris Bowen's response to all of this is to say, Labor's black hole is not as big as you think it is - which is like a thief saying sure, I've rolled a few service stations but not as many as I am being blamed for."

- Cabinet minister Christopher Pyne on the black hole debate.

"Seriously, this is like being given an economics lecture by a party of drunken sailors."

- Labor MP Richard Marles responds to Mr Pyne's comments.

"He has taken to campaigning like a cat to water."

- Labor MP Richard Marles shared his thoughts on the prime minister's election performance.

"Every time it [the government] makes derogatory comments about people from other countries it is contributing to ugly race politics and the consequence of it are the clashes that we've seen in Melbourne today."

- Greens leader Richard Di Natale links rhetoric with riots.