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In short:
Barnaby Joyce told protesters at a wind farm protest rally to use their ballot paper as bullets to "say goodbye" to the prime minister.
He apologised and conceded the metaphor wasn't appropriate when presented with footage of the rally on Monday morning.
What's next?
The prime minister has challenged Peter Dutton to sack Mr Joyce from the shadow cabinet.
Anthony Albanese has called for Barnaby Joyce to be sacked from the shadow frontbench after insinuating voters should use their ballot papers as bullets to "say goodbye" to the prime minister and other senior Labor figures.
The Nationals' frontbencher told protesters attending an anti-wind farm rally to "get ready to load that magazine" and vote out the prime minister, federal Energy Minister Chris Bowen and local MP Stephen Jones.
"The bullet you have is this little piece of paper, it goes in the magazine called the voting box and it's coming up," he said.
"Get ready to load that magazine. Go, goodbye Chris. Goodbye, Stephen. Goodbye, Albo," he said.
Mr Albanese said the gun analogy, which was made just two weeks after an assassination attempt on former US president Donald Trump and amid concerns about increasing harassment and violent acts targeting MPs, was "completely unacceptable".
The prime minister said he was concerned the language could incite violent behaviour.
"It's a test for Peter Dutton. Peter Dutton has had four reshuffles; he should have a fifth. And Barnaby Joyce should go," he told Sky News.
"And this is the sort of language which has no place in any part of Australian society, let alone in public life and here you have a guy going to a rally calling for action, using analogies of guns, bullets, magazines, and 'goodbye' to three members of the government.
"What does this bloke have to do to lose his job?"
The former deputy prime minister has been criticised for the comments he made at the rally against offshore wind farms in Lake Illawarra, south of Wollongong.
He told the crowd their vote was a weapon in opposing the "turds" and urged attendees to turn up and cast their ballot against it.
Mr Joyce apologised for the remark during an earlier appearance on morning television.
"I said your ballot paper is … the weapon you have. It shouldn't be a bullet. It should be the ballot paper and the ballot box," he told Channel 7.
"I apologise for using that metaphor."
Mr Jones, the local MP and federal Labor frontbencher, described his remarks as "dog whistling to political violence".
The newly minted special envoy for social cohesion, Labor MP Peter Khalil, described the remarks as "highly irresponsible".
"We've seen what's happened with other jurisdictions in the US and the polarisation and what's gone on with the attempted assassination in the US, so it's highly irresponsible," he told ABC's RN.
"We don't have to use that kind of violent rhetoric. It's really unnecessary and it's unacceptable and it should be called out."
Speaking later with ABC's Illawarra Mornings program, Mr Joyce again acknowledged the metaphor "probably wasn't appropriate" but said he stood by referring to the vote as "the most powerful thing you have".
"They are going offence hunting because they have come down here, they've stirred things up," he said.
"We won't talk about the wind towers, we'll just distract because that will get the people of the Illawarra thinking about something else and really they should be thinking about what is going to happen to your environment down here."
Deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley said she wouldn't have used the same metaphor but noted "Barnaby does use colourful language".
"When it comes to promoting social cohesion everyone in their language and words should be lifting the debate to what brings people together not what pushes people apart and I think all of us do that," she told ABC's RN.
"By focusing and trying to interrogate individual comments at different times I don't think that's particularly helpful."