A radio announcer was forced to turn off the microphones of Malcolm Turnbull and Anthony Albanese during an on-air spat, in which the politicians hurled names and accusations of lying at each other in the final days of the election campaign.

Mr Albanese, the Deputy Prime Minister, branded the Coalition's communications spokesman "Mr Fraudband", but not before Mr Turnbull claimed his on-air sparring partner would be "struck down by a thunderbolt. You are telling the most shocking lies".

So determined was the pair to rubbish each other's policies that Tom Tilley, the host of Triple J's Hack program, was forced to fade out their microphones on Thursday afternoon.

Not even that was enough to stop them.