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Anthony Albanese’s communications chief,Brett Mason (back left) has resigned to move to the public service.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Mason’s exit comes just nine months after he took the job of media director followingLiz Fitch’s resignation from the role in December and comes as the government’s standing in the polls continues to erode.

Mason is expected to be replaced by Fiona Sugden,who was former prime minister Kevin Rudd’s press secretary and is currently working in the Albanese communications team.

After about five years working for Treasurer Jim Chalmers in opposition and then Albanese in government,Mason told staff on Monday he had resigned to take up a senior communications role with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Before joining Labor,Mason,40,had a long career with SBS World News,including nine years as a foreign correspondent based in London and then three years as chief political correspondent for the network in its Canberra office.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has led Albanese as preferred prime minister in the past threeResolve Political Monitor surveys conducted for this masthead,while the Coalition’s primary vote has been ahead of Labor for the past seven surveys.

Internally,some Labor MPs are frustrated with the government’s handling of messaging and communications,pointing to the internal fight within Labor last week over whether to ask questions in the 2026 census about sexuality and gender as a recent example of its difficulties in articulating a clear message.

However,a source in the prime minister’s office,who asked not to be named so they could speak freely,said Mason was well regarded by his colleagues and would be missed,but that it was better the exit took place now,rather than closer to the election,which is due by 2025.

Fitch quit at the end of 2023 after a difficult year for the government that concluded with the failure to pass the Indigenous Voice to parliament referendum and the High Court’s NZYQ decision,which ruled indefinite immigration detention was illegal.

As well as working for Rudd,Sugden worked for Bill Shorten and Albanese in opposition,and is widely regarded as a steady hand who,like Mason,has the confidence and ear of the prime minister.

FormerGuardian Australia political editor Katharine Murphy,who joined the office earlier this year,is expected to be Sugden’s number two in the office.

In an address to staff,Mason said he had calculated that he had been on the daily early morning phone hook-up – which usually takes place around 5.30am – 1309 times during his period working for the opposition and then government.

He emphasised that he had loved the job and working for Albanese but wanted a new challenge that made the most of his previous experience in the foreign policy sphere. In his time as media director,Mason also worked on major projects including Albanese’s first meeting with China’s leader,Xi Jinping,and on three successive Pacific Island Forum meetings.

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