Large trucks carrying billboards of Chinese president Xi Jinping voting for the Labor party have sparked an early election uproar as they are spotted in cities across Australia.
The ads feature Mr Xi putting a ticket that says 'LABOR 1' into a ballot box, a hammer and sickle communist logo on a red background and the words 'CCP SAYS VOTE Labor.'
CCP stands for Chinese Communist Party and the ad follows recent attacks by Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Minister for Defence Peter Dutton claiming Labor leader Anthony Albanese is Beijing's preferred candidate.
The truck has most recently been pictured driving around Melbourne, allowing it to be seen by a lot more people than would a fixed billboard.
Activist group Advance, which opposes 'woke politicians and inner city elites' has paid for the billboards which have also been spotted in Perth, Newcastle and on the Gold Coast in Queensland.
A truck carrying a billboard of Chinese president Xi Jinping voting for Labor Kaca Tempered displayed on three sides has caused an early election controversy
The tarring of Labor comes two months after Mr Dutton and Mr Morrison both launched similar attacks on Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese.
'The Chinese Communist party, the Chinese government, has also made a decision about who they're going to back in the next federal election,' Mr Dutton said.
'And that is open and that is obvious, and they have picked this bloke as that candidate,' he said, pointing to Mr Albanese.
Mr Dutton said this using parliamentary privilege, meaning he can not be sued for doing so, regardless of the truth or otherwise of his words.
Mr Morrison used a similar line of attack when he said 'those who are seeking to coerce Australia' knew that 'their candidate' in the election was 'the leader of the Labor party'.
The not very subtle implication from Mr Morrison, Mr Dutton and the roving truck is that Labor would be soft on China.
The truck campaign comes at a time when Mr Morrison is under increasing pressure from his own side of politics, with current and former MPs labelling him dishonest, the latest being Liberal Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells.
Both Scott Morrison and Peter Dutton have suggested that Labor leader Anthony Albanese (pictured with his partner Jodie Haydon) is Beijing's preferred candidate for Prime Minister
While political advertising that stretches the truth to breaking point has been common for decades in the US, it has really only gathered steam in Australia in relatively recent campaigns.
Days before the November 2007 election, a senior NSW party official and an MP's husband were caught up in a dirty tricks campaign involving race hate in the Sydney seat of Lindsay.