Former Prime Minister Julia Gillard and current PM Anthony Albanese have joined a bipartisan chorus of politicians expressing disgust at a truck-mounted billboard targeting Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan with the phrase "ditch the witch" - a slogan that last made the rounds when it was used against Gillard herself 15 years ago.

The billboards, which have been roaming Melbourne for about six weeks, feature AI-generated images of Allan wearing a black pointed hat and sporting warts on her chin, running between advertisements for a brothel. Because nothing says "robust policy debate" like a pimped-out truck shuttling between sex work ads and medieval-grade misogyny.

Speaking in Canberra on Monday, Albanese called the campaign "totally unacceptable" and warned that the growing number of threats against politicians could lead to tragedy. "We want to encourage women to enter public life and it should be a contest of ideas, not personal attacks," he said, before adding that "mainstream media" also needs to stop its "personal ways" of characterising public figures - though he declined to name names, presumably because he has enough enemies already.

Gillard, who was famously targeted with the same phrase during her premiership, said she was "disgusted" to see it resurrected. "This was a slogan used against me as prime minister fifteen years ago," she wrote on social media. "It was roundly condemned then. In the years since, my view has been that things were slowly improving for women in politics. More women are leading, sexism hasn't gone away but it is less ferocious in the political mainstream, though social media continues to be a toxic sewer. I am saddened to see that improvement cast aside and this tired old trope resurrected."

The phrase famously featured in Gillard's 2012 "misogyny speech" - which Guardian Australia readers later voted the most unforgettable moment in Australian TV history - during which she called out then-opposition leader Tony Abbott for standing next to a "Ditch the witch" sign at an anti-carbon tax rally. Abbott, now a diplomat for Indigenous affairs, did not immediately comment on the sequel.

The Herald Sun published one of the AI-generated images on Sunday alongside a story about a possible leadership spill against Allan, prompting the premier to release a statement saying "sexism has no place in our political debate, full stop." Allan added: "People are entitled to disagree with me. That's democracy. But I care that this attacks women. And I care about who's next."

The Age reports the truck billboards were partially funded by Franco Puleo, owner of the Gotham City brothel in South Melbourne, who defended the campaign by claiming it reflects "what the Victorian public feel" - a statement that assumes the public's deepest political concerns are best expressed through a moving misogyny display.

Victorian Attorney General Sonya Kilkenny joined the condemnation, writing: "Women in public life should not have to accept abuse and misogyny as part of the job. You can disagree with a politician. You can disagree with a government. That's democracy. Reducing a woman to a sexist slur is not."

Opposition leader Jess Wilson distanced her party from the billboards, calling them "inappropriate" and insisting "that sort of language, that sort of discourse, should never be used in politics."

Nationals leader Matt Canavan, however, said while he "wouldn't be advertising in this particular way," the Labor outrage was merely an attempt to "protect what is a failing government down there [in Victoria]."

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson went further, telling Allan via Sky News to "suck it up, sweetheart," adding that she had been called a witch "long before" Allan - and not just by random billboards but by actual politicians. "Besides, Jacinta," Hanson added, "I've heard on the grapevine you won't be there in a couple of weeks."