Deputy Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says no one in the Rudd government has a "rush to the polls mentality" but it will be before or after his league team wins the premiership.
Mr Albanese on Saturday called for patience, as speculation about the federal election date reaches fever pitch.
"No one in the government has had a rush to the polls mentality," he told reporters, flanked by scores of red balloons at a community campaign event for Chinese Australian lawyer Jason Yat-sen Li, Labor's candidate for the Sydney seat of Bennelong.
He said the government would consider calling the election at an appropriate time.
"It will be before or after the Souths win their twenty first premiership," he joked.
Mr Albanese is a South Sydney Rabbitohs supporter.
Opposition leader Tony Abbott urged Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to stop "playing games" and name the date.
"The government of our country is not about showbiz," he told reporters at the Stockman's Hall of Fame at Longreach in western Queensland.
"Electing a national government is not a version of celebrity Big Brother."
