'Not the Australian way': Leaders condemn Barnaby Joyce for bullet comments

Mr Joyce was pressed to apologise for using a metaphor comparing votes to bullets and the ballot box to the magazine of a gun while speaking at a rally held by the Responsible Futures group at Lake Illawarra on July 28.

He told the crowd, in which people laughed and cheered at his message, that "your greatest weapon" in opposing the turbines was "to turn up in numbers" in Canberra and Sydney.

"And the bullet you have is a little piece of paper, it goes in the magazine called the voting box. It's coming up," he said.

"Get ready to load that magazine.

"Goodbye, Chris. Goodbye, Stephen. Goodbye, Albo."

By Monday morning, he appeared on breakfast television and - after being pressed by NDIS Minister Bill Shorten - said he apologised "for using that metaphor."

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was one of many government MPs to call out the comments, saying the comments were a test for Opposition Leader Peter Dutton.

"We've seen some comments today that are unworthy of any Australian let alone a senior member of parliament, and that's a test for Peter Dutton for whether that's acceptable or whether he has his fifth reshuffle which should occur today as a result of those comments by Barnaby Joyce," Mr Albanese said.

"It's one thing to use extreme language of Whyalla being wiped out and roasts and other statements that he's made due to his obsessive opposition to any climate action but it's another thing to speak about - literally - people being wiped out.

"And there's no place for that in Australian politics. We do not want to go down the road that we've seen some other democracies go with that intense polarisation and division in this country.

"So we'll see whether Peter Dutton is up to that test today."

Health Minister Mark Butler also addressed Mr Joyce's remarks, saying he should be sacked.

"At a time when the head of the federal police has testified before this parliament about a sharp rise in explicit threats against members of parliament, and within just a fortnight of the assassination attempt against former President Trump, it is simply extraordinary that a senior frontbencher would use such explicit, violent language about the prime minister of this country and other senior political leaders," he said in Canberra on Monday.

"If Peter Dutton has any sense of strength as a leader and any sense of responsibility as the alternative prime minister of this country, he will sack Barnaby Joyce for this simply unacceptable, violent language that he's used at a public rally."

The deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley said she hadn't seen the comments "in the entire context" but that it was not "language I would have used".

"Barnaby, as we know, does use colourful language, but I haven't seen the comments in the entire context," she said.

"But when it comes to promoting social cohesion, everyone in their language and their words should be lifting the debate to what brings people together, not what pushes people apart, and I think all of us do that.

"So, by focusing and trying to interrogate individual comments at different times, I don't think that's particularly helpful."