Labor leader Bill Shorten and his deputy, Tanya Plibersek, have savaged Mark Latham over his bizarre claim that the captain of Sydney Boys High School is "gay" for taking part in a video supporting feminism.
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Mr Shorten and Ms Plibersek criticised the former ALP leader for the first time after the controversy-prone media commentator's latest distasteful remarks.
The Opposition Leader accused his predecessor of "sad, attention seeking behaviour by attacking other people".
"He's behaving like a bully and he should apologise," Mr Shorten said.
Ms Plibersek said that school captain Hugh Bartley and his classmates at Sydney Boys High were "better men than Mark Latham has ever been."
"Mark Latham should be ashamed of attacking teenagers trying to make the world a better place," she said.
Sydney Boys High is in Ms Plibersek's electorate of Sydney.
"They invited me to speak at their assembly for International Women's Day. They are terrific young men. I've known Hugh for years and he is a particularly impressive person."
There is no love lost between Mr Shorten and Mr Latham; the former Labor leader last year suggested the Opposition Leader had "man boobs", and in his infamous diary he accused Mr Shorten, then the leader of the Australian Workers' Union, of taking contradictory positions in public and private on free trade agreements.
Education Minister Simon Birmingham and his NSW counterpart Rob Stokes have also rebuked Mr Latham for the comments, made on Sky News on Sunday.
Senator Birmingham said he should "pick on someone his own size".
NSW Labor Party general secretary Kaila Murnain said: "If Mark Latham was a member of the Labor Party, I would kick him out myself".
"There is no place for this kind of behaviour in our party."
In the past week, Mr Latham's shoot-from-the-lip style has drawn official complaints and possible future defamation action from fellow Sky presenter and former NSW premier Kristina Keneally, and ABC radio host Wendy Harmer.
Ms Plibersek, who is Labor's education spokeswoman, joined Senator Birmingham and Mr Stokes in describing Mr Latham's approach as bullying.
"I never like to see adults attacking young people for trying to make the world a better place," she said.
The video, titled "Feminism is Important To Us", was made as part of a series of events revolving around International Women's Day at the school, and shows students repeating the reasons why feminism is important to the women in their lives.
It went viral this month.
Students gathered nearly 100 quotes from women in their lives, including teachers, friends, sisters and mothers, and read out quotes.
Hugh, who led the video project, said it was part of a week-long campaign at the school to examine gender equality and how feminism affects both men and women.
A fortnight ago, he told Fairfax Media that positive reactions to the video had vastly outnumbered negative responses.
He said the project was about "getting boys thinking about feminism and the role of men and women in society and what they can do to influence that in a positive way".
Sydney Boys High declined to comment on Wednesday. "They have nothing further to add to the comments made by others," said a spokesman for the NSW Education Department.
On Tuesday, Mr Latham stood by his remarks.
Sky News has been approached for comment.
