The Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, has come under fire after using his welcoming remarks for Barack Obama as an opportunity to take political potshots at the government.

Mr Abbott, who has broken convention during previous state visits, did so again yesterday when he took potshots at Labor over its policy regarding uranium sales to India and its carbon and mining taxes.

''There's no event too big in which he doesn't show himself to be too small,'' the manager of government business, Anthony Albanese, said. ''He always goes a step too far.''

The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Kevin Rudd, said Mr Abbott's words were unbecoming of somebody aspiring to be prime minister.

''We saw a man trying to inject crude, crass domestic politics into an occasion which should be beyond all that but about our uniform interest in the US alliance.''

Some Liberal MPs were also unhappy. ''We were squirming in our seats,'' one said.

Other Liberals defended Mr Abbott, and his office pointed out Ms Gillard twice mentioned clean energy in her speech, a reference to her climate change policy.

When a visiting leader addresses a joint sitting of Parliament, convention dictates the prime minster and opposition leader keep their welcoming speeches short and apolitical.

When George W. Bush and China's Hu Jintao addressed Parliament in 2003, the-then opposition leader Simon Crean adhered to convention. So too did Kim Beazley when Tony Blair addressed Parliament in 2006. Kevin Rudd did the same when Canada's Stephen Harper visited in 2007.

There have been three addresses to Parliament since Mr Abbott has been opposition leader and he has stirred controversy each time. When the Indonesian President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, visited in March last year, Mr Abbott made reference to the renewed surge of asylum seekers under Labor: ''We have worked to end people smuggling before. People smuggling has started again and we can stop it again provided it is done co-operatively ... and with the right policies in place here in Australia.''

Mr Abbott broke convention again in June while welcoming the New Zealand Prime Minister, John Key.

He congratulated Mr Key for ''dramatically watering down'' the emissions trading scheme his government inherited and then vowed to abolish any carbon tax he might inherit.

Yesterday, Mr Abbott chided Labor, which is about to reverse its policy of banning uranium sales to India, and he criticised its economic approach.

''Australia's danger is complacency, the feeling that the world has no choice but to buy our minerals so new taxes can painlessly fix our fiscal problems,'' he said.

There was grumbling on the Liberal side also yesterday after Mr Obama's departure.

The former prime minister John Howard was invited to the dinner on Wednesday night and yesterday's speech but his wife, Janette, was not. Mr Howard was not happy with the snub. He did have a chat to Mr Obama and told him how welcome he was. The two have had an awkward relationship since February 2007 when Mr Howard took issue with Mr Obama's pledge to withdraw troops from Iraq.

http://www.smh.com.au/national/abbott-earns-reprimand-for-speaking-out-of-school-20111117-1nl7f.html