Anthony Albanese has delivered an impassioned defence of his mother and a blistering rebuke to Pauline Hanson after the One Nation leader described as “pathetic” how often the Prime Minister speaks about his social housing upbringing.

Mr Albanese on Sunday said he was “stunned” to learn Senator Hanson had criticised his mother for the time she spent living in social housing.

Condemning the comments as nasty, weak and spiteful, he reiterated he was proud of his “houso” upbringing and defiantly described his mother as being “way out of Pauline Hanson’s league”.

“She was compassionate, not uncaring,” the Prime Minister said of Maryanne Albanese, who died in 2002 aged 65 after raising the now-Prime Minister in public housing and on a disability pension.

“She was generous. And she was kind, not nasty. She was a person of great character.

“She had a tough life, but you know what?

“She used to also have great sayings. One of them was: ‘There’s always someone worse off than yourself’.

Senator Hanson made her controversial remarks during an interview with Karl Stefanovic in February.

She said those in public housing on the street where she grew up “had jobs”.

“Housing commission houses should not be there for people to live in them for 30, 40 (years), and he said his mother lived in the same one she was born in for 65 years,” Senator Hanson told the broadcaster-turned-podcaster.

“Sorry, that is not on, to me – it should be limited time.

“You have been given a hand up, move it on to the next ones coming through.”

An emotion Mr Albanese hit back at a press conference in Sydney on Sunday, declaring his mother was a woman “way out of Pauline Hanson’s league” .

“After I was born, she worked cleaning offices overnight in the city in order to get an income. And then caring for me, her new baby, during the day,” Mr Albanese said.

“She suffered from rheumatoid arthritis and was crippled up. She was unable for a long while to be able to use a knife and fork. She used to come down the stairs at our house on her bum because she couldn’t stand up fully in the morning.”

He added that he could not understand how Senator Hanson could “attack someone and their character, who died in 2002, some 24 years ago, at age just 65”.

“I said during the last campaign, kindness isn’t weakness,” he said.

“I’ll tell you what’s weakness, nastiness. Nastiness.

“And spitefulness.

“If Pauline Hanson wants to criticise me then that’s fine. But my mother was way out of Pauline Hanson’s league, way out of it.”

Trade Minister Don Farrell labelled the comments “appalling” and called for her to apologise.

“She wants dignity and respect from her fellow parliamentarians,” the Labor frontbencher said in an interview on News24. “Attacking the prime minister’s mother like this is not a way to get respect and dignity from your colleagues.”

Liberal frontbencher Andrew Hastie also said that mums were a red line in politics and the saga was “another indicator to the Australian people” that Senator Hanson was “not fit to be prime minister”.

“I reckon mums you leave out of politics,” Mr Hastie said.

“I’ve always tried to be respectful of Pauline.”