“At the recent state election, we had Michael Daley saying Asians will take your jobs. Now we’ve got Tanya Plibersek, who would be deputy prime minister of the country, saying that Indian businesses can’t create jobs.

“The Labor Party has form here. It took Bill Shorten six days to denounce what Michael Daley said.”

Earlier, Resources Minister Matt Canavan - a vociferous proponent of the Adani mine in Queensland - also accused Ms Plibersek of “blatant dog whistling”.

Asked whether he was accusing Labor and Ms Plibersek of racism, Mr Morrison said: “No, I’m just saying exactly what I’ve just said.”

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The comments will deepen the negative sentiment that has already defined the start of the five-week campaign after Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton said his Labor opponent in Dickson, Ali France, had used her disability as an “excuse” not to reside in the electorate.

Ms France, a former journalist, was pushing a stroller containing her son through a car park in 2011 when an out-of-control car slammed into her, pinning her against another vehicle. She had to have her left leg amputated above the knee and uses a wheelchair at home.

Mr Morrison twice had the opportunity to denounce Mr Dutton’s comments on Friday but did not do so, and said his Home Affairs Minister has been “taken out of context”.

Just after midday on Saturday, Mr Dutton tweeted an apology. "I apologise to Ms France for my comments yesterday. My argument with the Labor candidate is about how our respective policies would affect the people of Dickson," he wrote.

The Prime Minister was campaigning in the marginal Liberal seat of Reid on Saturday, where sitting MP and staunch Malcolm Turnbull ally Craig Laundy is leaving politics.

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Mr Morrison met voters enjoying coffee in Strathfield plaza as he walked the streets with Mr Laundy and the Liberal candidate, Fiona Martin, a child psychologist.

He ran into a spot of trouble when he greeted one woman with "ni hao", which is hello in Mandarin. She responded: "I'm Korean."

Later Mr Morrison posed for photographs with locals and helped to roll pork and vegetable dumplings at a restaurant.

The seat of Reid will be a key focus for both major parties. Labor’s Sam Crosby hopes to wrest it off the government but will need a two-party preferred swing of 4.7 per cent.