Invisible Shorten gets brush from campaign flyers

Bill Shorten has been airbrushed from campaign material in at least 27 federal seats.

Bill Shorten with his wife Chloe and in-laws Quentin Bryce, the former governor-general, and Michael Bryce at church in Brisbane yesterday. Picture: Kym Smith

Bill Shorten has been airbrushed from campaign material in at least 27 federal seats, about half of them hotly contested marginals, as Labor works to counter the Opposition Leader's poor personal rating among voters.

Campaign material distributed by Labor candidates in nine Queensland seats — including letters, flyers and postal voting applications — does not contain a single mention or photograph of Mr Shorten.

They include the ultra-marginal seat of Capricornia, held by assistant minister and Nationals MP Michelle Landry with a margin of 0.6 per cent; Petrie, held by Liberal MP Luke Howarth (1.6 per cent); and Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton’s seat of Dickson, (1.7 per cent). Mr Shorten is not mentioned in material being circulated by Labor’s candidate for the seat of Dawson, Belinda Hassan, held by embattled Nationals MP George Christensen with a margin of 3.4 per cent. Or in Bonner, Brisbane, Lilley or Moreton.

Instead, candidates are opting for stock images of doctors, tradies and themselves in the local area.

NOTHING TO SEE HERE - Labor flyers

Mr Shorten has also apparently been shunned by his own frontbench, not rating a mention by deputy leader Tanya Plibersek in Sydney, Linda Burney in Barton or Terri Butler in the marginal seat of Griffith (1.4 per cent).

A Labor source told The Australian that all content had to be approved by the party's national campaign headquarters before being distributed.

The source hinted that distributing material that did not mention Mr Shorten was a deliberate strategy directly related to his ­unpopularity.

The latest Newspoll has Mr Shorten sitting on a net satisfaction rating of minus 14 with 37 per cent of those surveyed satisfied with his performance and 51 per cent dissatisfied.

In NSW, the Labor leader isn't featured in campaign material from at least seven electorates, including marginals Gilmore, Lindsay and Robertson.

Despite handpicking neurosurgeon Brian Owler, Mr Shorten does not appear in Labor’s Bennelong flyers.

A letter from Labor Senate leader Penny Wong to voters in the South Australian seat of Boothby, a Liberal seat with a margin of 2.7 per cent, references the “united, stable Labor team” but not Mr Shorten. Instead, it has a picture of Senator Wong alongside Labor’s South Australian Senate candidates.

In Victoria, Mr Shorten has been left out of six Labor campaigns, including in outgoing Jobs Minister Kelly O’Dwyer's seat of Higgins, which is expected to see swings away from the Coalition and could be picked up by Labor.

In the neighbouring seat of Dunkley, held by Liberal Chris Crewther but notionally a marginal Labor seat on a 1 per cent margin after redistributions, there is also no hint of the Labor leader.

Justine Keay, Labor’s candidate for Braddon in Tasmania who holds her seat with a margin of 1.7 per cent, has opted for a photograph of herself alongside Labor deputy Ms Plibersek.

Labor candidate for the safe Greens seat of Melbourne Luke Creasey has not one but two photographs of himself with Ms Plibersek alongside the quote: “If you want a better and fairer future, vote Labor for a change of government.”

Even Mr Shorten’s closest friends have left him off their campaign material. His Victorian factional ally Rob Mitchell doesn’t have a single mention or picture of him on his flyers. The backbencher who holds the seat of McEwen by a 6 per cent margin only mentions a “Labor government” and the party’s “Fair go for Australia”.