Jim Chalmers denies Tanya Plibersek benched from Labor's election campaign

The treasury spokesman was joined by Fowler candidate Senator Kristina Keneally on Friday morning in the inner-west Sydney seat of Reid, where the Liberal MP Fiona Martin holds a slim 3.2 per cent two-party preferred margin.

Labor took to its campaign to a supermarket in Homebush, where Dr Chalmers targeted the Prime Minister on his record of "going missing" during tough times.

Inflation rates rose to its highest level in 20 years this week, putting additional pressure and focus on what parties will do for the sharp rise in the cost of living.

The treasurer hopeful said it was another case of Scott Morrison not taking responsibility.

"When things are going well, they take all the credit and when times are tough, they take absolutely none of the responsibility," Dr Chalmers said.

But the senior figures were also questioned why the party's women and education spokeswoman, Tanya Plibersek, was not joining fellow frontbench colleagues in Western Australia on Sunday for the official campaign launch.

Speculation has been brewing over whether the Labor Party is freezing out certain frontbenchers, including Ms Plibersek and former leader Bill Shorten, to tightly control the party's messaging.

But Dr Chalmers denied the claims, pointing to her various "outstanding" media appearances since the election was announced.

"Tanya Plibersek has been doing as much, if not more, media than most of her colleagues," he said.

"She's making an absolutely outstanding contribution to this campaign.

"Any objective observer would conclude that."

Dr Chalmers was also asked to address comments by Howard government treasurer Peter Costello, who criticised the Reserve Bank of Australia as being out of step with the government and "behind the curve".

The comments by Mr Costello reference the central bank's decision to delay a cash rate hike, which he said showed "the housewives of Australia had a better grip on inflation than the Reserve Bank board".

Labor's choice for treasurer responded the RBA was independent of the federal government and "rightly so".

"We don't second guess [the RBA] and we don't pre-empt its decisions," Dr Chalmers said.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg didn't condemn Mr Costello's comments on Friday morning to ABC Radio National, but conceded it was in the "best interests of the community" for the government and the central bank's policies to be aligned.

"During the pandemic, monetary policy and fiscal policy was aligned and that was very much in the best interests of the community," he said.

"The net result now is our recovery is greater than every major advanced economy in the world [and] that both fiscal and non monetary policy will normalise.

"Over time, we've brought to an end those emergency payments, and the Reserve Bank will make its own decisions in coming weeks."

The Labor campaign is travelling to Western Australia on Friday, where Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese will rejoin it after recovering from COVID-19.

Mr Albanese said deputy Labor leader Richard Marles had tested positive for COVID-19 and would remain in isolation until he'd recovered.