OK, so right before this moment shown in this photo, it looked like Plibersek was going in for a hug or a social kiss and Albanese grabbed both her arms and kinda shook them instead and continued down the line of Labor frontbenchers and the media lost its mind at the SNUB SEEN AROUND THE NATION.

It is no secret that Albanese and Plibersek have been rivals throughout their time in the Labor party, with both fighting it out for dominance within the Left faction. Albanese obviously emerged victorious in that battle (for now) but that doesn’t mean the rivalry stopped.

He gave Plibersek the environment portfolio instead of what she wanted – the education portfolio – because one) it is a difficult portfolio for any Labor MP to hold because Labor policy doesn’t address climate change like it should and still supports fossil fuels and so you need someone you know won’t mess up what is a very difficult line to walk (Labor’s own doing it is a difficult line, but that’s the political reality of it) and two) because it is such a hard line to walk, it usually does damage to the standing of the Labor politician who holds it and that wouldn’t be unattractive to Albanese either.

So Plibersek is one of their best performers, so she gets one of the hardest jobs, and it has the added bonus for Albanese that he can also annoy Plibersek and cut down her leadership ambitions.

None of this is new. And it is equally true that there are no leadership rumblings in Labor. It’s a pretty committed team, despite some of the internal relationship politics.

However, the kiss thing is a bit of a non-event. It’s an election campaign – Albanese didn’t actually kiss anyone and not wanting to get sick is part of that, also anyone who has ever gone in for a social kiss when someone is going in for a handshake and seen that awkwardness play out and also – there are bigger issues in the world? There is a genocide happening people. Let’s keep things in perspective.

Ugh.