Labor has come under fire from the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) Australian community, after a campaign flyer for the Batman by-election was released using Greek text under the subheading ‘Macedonian’.

Federal Labor Party leader Bill Shorten and Labor candidate for Batman Ged Kearney have since apologised and said that it was “a production error”.

The party’s election policy information was printed in several languages on the flyer, including Greek, Arabic, Italian, and Vietnamese, but the Greek language was also used in the ‘Macedonian’ section.

The non-profit organisation World Macedonian Congress Australia had issued a public letter on Tuesday condemning the mistake.

“It is highly offensive and discriminatory to impose a Greek translation on the flyer, considering Macedonian is an internationally recognised language, and there are registered Australian Macedonian NAATI-certified translators for the Macedonian language in Australia,” the statement read.

The campaign flyer has caused tension in the Batman electorate.

On Wednesday, Shorten and Kearney issued a joint statement in an email to SBS News saying, “Clearly the translated message should have been in the Macedonian language . . . We were not aware of it until the flyer was distributed.”

That same day Kearney held a meeting in her electorate, inviting members of the FYROM community to attend, to personally express her apologies over the matter.

The mistake has come at a particularly sensitive time, as Greece and FYROM are in talks over the use of the name ‘Macedonia’.

Thousands of Greek Australians, and Australians of FYROM heritage have protested to express their views over the use of the name.

The Batman by-election takes place on Saturday.