The Housing Minister, Brendan O'Connor, described volunteer firefighting by the Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, as a ''stunt'' on Wednesday, before apologising for the remark.
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Mr O'Connor retweeted a tweet Mr Abbott sent on Tuesday about the fires - ''I'm now on my way to Sydney to be on standby with my local fire brigade'' - and added the hashtag ''standbystunt''.
But Mr O'Connor soon deleted the tweet and apologised: ''Apologies for any offence. I respect and acknowledge the critical work of all our volunteer firefighters including Tony Abbott.''
This came as Liberal MPs expressed their unhappiness about the barb.
Liberal Jamie Briggs tweeted: ''Brendan O'Connor has highlighted just how nasty and vicious Labor's campaign will be this year.''
The Premier, Barry O'Farrell, called Mr O'Connor's tweet ''unhelpful''.
But Mr O'Connor received some support from a Brisbane Labor MP, Graham Perrett. ''We all love his [Mr Abbott's] volunteering but [it's] when we see it through the prism of his press release that the queries start,'' Mr Perrett said.
Mr O'Connor is on leave. On Wednesday, his office said he was not able to comment.
