The Abbott Government has almost doubled spending on market research for its China Free Trade Agreement advertising campaign.

Taxpayers will fund the campaign as pressure mounts on Tony Abbott and Andrew Robb to explain their decision to trade away labour market testing during FTA negotiations.

A government contractfor Market Research Services for the Free Trade Agreement campaign development and delivery has almost doubled in value from $275,000 to $500,000 in the past week.

Labor hopes taxpayers werent slugged for yesterdays hare-brained idea the China FTA should be re-branded the China export agreement.

We support a China FTA that delivers jobs for Australians.

The China FTA needs safeguards, not taxpayer-funded advertising.

It wont cost money to fix the problem, but it will require Tony Abbott to stop acting like a political brawler, and start acting like a Prime Minister.