No mention of Anthony Albanese in Tanya Plibersek’s campaign material

Tanya Plibersek and Anthony Albanese have repeatedly been forced to deny a rift during the election campaign. But her latest promotional leaflet does not mention her leader once.

Days after Anthony Albanese denied there was a split between him and Tanya Plibersek, the senior Labor frontbencher hasn’t mentioned her leader once in her latest campaign ­material distributed to voters.

Multiple references to Scott Morrison were made in the pamphlet, while the word “Labor” was used five times (as well as two party logos) on the double-page A3 poster put in letterboxes in her Sydney electorate.

But nowhere does Ms Plibersek mention Mr Albanese, who was forced to deny there was a split between the pair after speculation over the education spokeswoman’s ongoing absence from his campaign.

“It’s time for a government that cares about people,” Ms Plibersek’s latest campaign leaflet says, declaring in bold type: “Labor cares”.

Ms Plibersek appeared alongside Mr Albanese for the first time during the campaign on Wednesday to talk about Labor’s TAFE policy.

Tanya Plibersek's campaign material (inset) does not mention ALP leader Anthony Albanese.

On Sunday she skipped the party’s campaign launch in Perth, saying that it would not be a productive use of her time to attend. She instead represented Mr Albanese at a Sydney May Day event.

Before the campaign launch, Ms Plibersek said there was “quite a small number” of people going, but multiple NSW frontbenchers attended, including Tony Burke, Chris Bowen, Ed Husic, and Kristina Keneally.

Rumours of a rift between Plibersek and Albanese have been rife during the campaign. Picture: Liam Kidston

“Tanya’s a proud member of Anthony Albanese’s team,” Ms Plibersek’s spokesman said.

Labor’s campaign team declined to comment on the record about the pamphlet, but a source pointed to material from multiple Liberal candidates and MPs in which Mr Morrison’s name is hardly mentioned. Posters for Liberal backbencher Dave Sharma in Wentworth have avoided references to Mr Morrison.

Ms Plibersek is one of the most senior figures of either party in NSW to run a campaign largely independent of their leader.

She has for many years used the colour purple for her campaign material, including T-shirts and posters, rather than traditional Labor red.

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