Labor has asked the former prime minister, Kevin Rudd, to campaign for the party outside his own seat, but he has asked for time to consider the request.
Labor strategists believe the former prime minister is an asset for the party in Queensland, where the federal government is most vulnerable.
The Herald/Nielsen poll last week suggested Labor could lose up to 10 seats in Mr Rudd's home state. If Labor loses 13 seats nationally it is out of power.
The party is understood to have approached Mr Rudd early in the campaign to ask him to work for the re-election of other Labor candidates in Queensland, according to Labor figures familiar with the contacts.
He did not refuse to help, but is understood to have said that he needed time to consider his plans for the campaign.
After the lightning coup against him 36 days ago, the Gillard government does not feel it is in a strong position to exert moral pressure on him to enter the fray.
Two weeks into the campaign, Mr Rudd's only appearances have been in his Brisbane seat of Griffith, which he holds by an impregnable 12.4 per cent margin.
His campaign posters exclude any mention of Labor, leading to speculation that he is resentful about his treatment.
Public sympathy for Mr Rudd is strong. The Herald/Nielsen poll found that 69 per cent of respondents disapproved of the way he was cut down in his first term in office.
Simon Crean, the Minister for Education, and an ally of Julia Gillard, on Sunday publicly called on Mr Rudd to play his part in the team.
Asked what advice he would give Mr Rudd, Mr Crean told ABC-TV: ''You can't be leader. He's got to accept that, he's got to move on and he's got to play his part in the team.''
Yesterday the Prime Minister repeated her pledge that she would offer Mr Rudd a senior post in the cabinet of a re-elected Gillard government. ''If we're elected I will want to see Kevin Rudd working with me as a senior member of Labor's team. Kevin Rudd is an honourable person, he's working hard now for his local community,'' she said.
And the Treasurer, Wayne Swan, publicly defended Mr Rudd against accusations he might have been responsible for damaging leaks against Ms Gillard.
''The most important thing for us to do is to get out there and campaign, and that's what Kevin is doing in his electorate.''
Mr Rudd issued a statement on Wednesday denying he had told reporters that Ms Gillard had argued against the generosity of two key Labor welfare reforms that she had later boasted about.
The disclosure disrupted the Labor campaign, forced Ms Gillard to call an emergency news conference on Wednesday to defend herself, and raised questions about her attitudes to age pensioners and working mothers.
There appears to be a strong State of Origin flavour to politics in Queensland. In the 2007 campaign, Labor put up maroon-coloured posters urging people to ''vote for a Queensland PM''.
Mr Rudd's status as a popular Queenslander helped Labor lift its number of federal seats in the state from six to 15. It was only the second time federal Labor had won a majority of Queensland seats, which total 29.
On the day that Ms Gillard toppled Mr Rudd, as he choked his way through his valedictory statement to the media, he said: ''I will be dedicating my every effort to ensure the re-election of this Australian Labor government. It is a good government with a good program.''
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