Albanese feeling cocky as he tries to pluck byelection votes

Anthony Albanese is hoping to capitalise on frustration over the bushfire recovery and roll-out of coronavirus stimulus as he battles to hold the marginal seat of Eden-Monaro at the July 4 byelection.

In his sixth visit to the electorate since the byelection was triggered by the resignation of sitting Labor MP Mike Kelly, Mr Albanese met with South Coast farmers who had suffered livestock losses during the deadly blazes last summer.

Media accompanying Mr Albanese and Labor's candidate, Kristy McBain, were kept out of a briefing with bushfire victims in Cobargo, the same village where Prime Minister Scott Morrison received an angry reaction from locals when he visited in the immediate aftermath of the fires.

Quaama poultry farmers Dan and Lyndal Tarasenko, who estimate they suffered losses of more than $1 million in property and livestock including 800 chickens, told Mr Albanese they had encountered bureaucratic hurdles as they tried to rebuild their business.

An application to the state government's Farm Innovation Fund for a $600,000 loan to rebuild sheds and fencing and build a dam was rejected for an inadequate loan-to-value ratio because the Tarasenkos were not told to use an updated valuation for their property instead of the purchase price.

An application for a $50,000 cashflow loan was knocked back because it was assessed it would have put the family into undue hardship. However, the family say bureaucrats treated more than $400,000 in one-off expenses to install solar panels and build a mobile abattoir as ongoing costs.

And a grant scheme that makes up to $200,000 available applies only to dairy farmers, not farmers who have lost other animals.

"Because I don't have the right coloured cows in my paddock, I don't qualify for funding," Mr Tarasenko said.

"If we don't get a loan to put some serious infrastructure here, there is no point going on."

Keeping the heat on JobKeeper

While Mr Tarashenko's struggle is mainly with state agencies, Mr Albanese also continued to criticise the design of the federal government's JobKeeper scheme following last week's revelation $60 billion would be saved because Treasury had overestimated the cost.

Narooma cafe owner Kristy Beecham told Mr Albanese that of 30 staff across her two cafes, only seven qualified for the $1500-a-fortnight JobKeeper payment because of the high rate of casualisation in the tourist town.

With some staff unable to pick up extra shifts despite JobKeeper exceeding their usual weekly pay packet, Mrs Beecham is giving shifts to five other casuals, but their wages are not subsidised.

While Mrs Beecham says "without JobKeeper we wouldn't be open", she is frustrated it is not more flexible to cover all her employees.

"I've got casual staff and they want to work," she said.

Impact on people

Mr Albanese said JobKeeper was a good idea but had been implemented badly.

"But the problem isn't just a $60 billion figure as an academic exercise. The problem is the impact on people," Mr Albanese said.

"People who aren't able to be employed. People who haven't gotten income for themselves and their families, because of the inflexibility of the way that JobKeeper was designed."

On the fires, Mr Albanese accused the government of complacency before summer and said a future Labor government would implement the inquiry findings.

"One of the concerns that's been expressed to me when I've been here on the coast, and indeed in the Snowy, is that the recommendations which flow from the royal commission and from the Senate inquiry need to be followed up with action, need to be followed up with funding," he said.

Dr Kelly, who is retiring because of ill health, held the seat in the south-east corner of NSW by a margin of 0.9 per cent at the last election. While no opposition has lost a seat to an incumbent government at a byelection since 1920, the loss of Dr Kelly's personal following has Labor strategists worried it could fall.

Mr Morrison has made only one visit to Eden-Monaro so far, appearing last Sunday at a chocolate shop with the Liberal's candidate Fiona Kotvojs a day after she was endorsed.

Dr Kotvojs ran against Dr Kelly at the 2019 election and was preselected following internecine squabbling between NSW ministers Andrew Constance and John Barilaro, whose state seats fall within Eden-Monaro, over whether they would try to make the jump to federal politics.