An opposition leadership bid to focus on Labor's debt and deficit levels backfired today when two MPs clashed physically in the Liberal party room.
Liberal backbencher Alby Schultz was forced to apologise to colleague Chris Pearce for shirtfronting him and grabbing him around the throat as he left the party room.
Mr Schultz, from the southern NSW seat of Hume, abruptly left the party room this morning after he spoke heatedly about three-cornered contests, referring to when Nationals and Liberals each run candidates in the same seat.
As Mr Schultz left, Mr Pearce who is opposition spokesman on financial services and superannuation, said: "Have a nice day", to which Mr Schultz reacted.
In a statement issued by his office late on Tuesday, Mr Schultz said he had "reacted" to a remark from Mr Pearce and left the room.
"Approximately 10 minutes later I returned to the party room and apologised unreservedly to the member for Aston and to all of my Liberal Party colleagues," Mr Schultz said.
"I might also add I accepted an apology to me from the member for Aston."
Mr Schultz had spoken about the right of the NSW Liberal Party to run candidates in state rural seats at the next state election rather than leaving them exclusively to the Nationals.
Mr Pearce said it was "an unfortunate incident".
"It was an unfortunate incident, it's in the past, I'm focused on the future. Alby apologised in the party room. As far as I'm concerned, it's a matter that's finished," Mr Pearce told AAP.
The incident follows a physical encounter last week between Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull's senior media adviser, Tony Barry, and a journalist in the Canberra press gallery.
Buoyed by a small gain in his own personal standing in the latest Newspoll, Mr Turnbull told a coalition joint party room meeting that suggestions Labour had mishandled the economy, leading to debt of more than $A300 billion, were getting through to the public.
Mr Turnbull said it was easy to spend billions on schools but the government's $A42 billion stimulus package was poorly targeted and amounted to reckless spending.
News of the Schultz-Pearce incident prompted a raft of pugilistic-themed catcalls from Labor MPs during question time with one calling out: "It's a Liberal fight club!"
But Liberal backbencher Wilson Tuckey took a point of order and cryptically warned Labor MPs not to make an issue of the incident and to "lay off the individuals concerned, one in particular, because there are reasons that he would understand".
Later, Nationals leader Warren Truss told reporters that political campaigns between the coalition partners in NSW had always been "vigorous" but there was no room for violence in the parliament.
"When there are three-cornered contests that creates tensions, that's why we try to avoid them," Mr Truss said.
Mr Schultz has made his views about the junior party very clear on occasions, Mr Truss said.
"And there are some people in the National party who share those views about Mr Schultz, but we have been generally able to work through issues."
