"The poison in societies today is the mal-distribution of wealth ... We've avoided the terrible American problem but you have to keep improving these things," Mr Keating said. "What keeps us together as a society is we are all members of the Australian family. The health of any one of us should be important to all of us." Mr Keating also defended comments he made at the Labor Party campaign launch 10 days ago in which he attacked Australia's spy chiefs, calling them "nutters" and urging Mr Shorten to sack them to improve relations with China if he won the election. "I was sort of speaking in code, Jon, to the foreign policy and security establishment," he told ABC Melbourne radio host Jon Faine.

Mr Keating's intervention in the campaign comes a day after Liberal Party elder John Howard hit the campaign trail in support of his "great friend" and former prime minister Tony Abbott. Mr Keating praised the Labor line-up, saying it was the best potential cabinet in nearly four decades. Loading "What [Bill] Shorten is doing is presenting himself as chairman of a very competent board, a very competent cabinet. The last time we saw the Labor Party this good was, really, in 1983 with Bob Hawke's first ministry. This is what you're seeing again with Shorten. Shorten will be the competent leader of a really important and solid team." The Coalition, on the other hand, had a depleted team and was led by a man who presented himself as "the man next door who can jump the fence and wear a baseball cap", but Australia needed "more than the man next door" as prime minister.

When asked about Mr Keating's comments at a campaign event in Adelaide on Tuesday morning, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said: "I'm not going to get distracted by Paul Keating." Mr Keating's harshest words were reserved for Mr Dutton, who, Mr Keating said, had a "dark political heart". "I joined the Australian Parliament 50 years ago this year," Mr Keating said. "In those 50 years, I've never seen any public figure as mean or mean-spirited as Peter Dutton. Those electors in Dickson have a chance to drive a political stake through his dark political heart and I hope they do." Mr Dutton responded on Twitter saying: "Paul Keating almost destroyed my Dad's small business with his heartless mismanagement of the economy and he inspired me to join the Liberal Party.

"It's why I'm so passionate about not letting Bill Shorten repeat history and drive a stake through the hearts of small businesses around the country with his higher taxes." Mr Keating was also critical of United Australia Party leader Clive Palmer's attempt to return to political life. Faine noted Mr Palmer was in Fiji. "I wish he'd stay there," Mr Keating retorted before going on to warn that minor parties and independents would flourish when governments failed to have "a vision, a vista, a panorama of where the country is going".