Federal election: Anthony Albanese keeps heat on Scott Morrison for fires

Anthony Albanese has made it clear his strategy for holding onto crucial NSW south coast seats by reminding voters of Scott Morrison’s failures during the Black Summer bushfires.

Anthony Albanese at a fire station in Moruya, in the NSW electorate of Gilmore, on Thursday. Picture: AAP

Anthony Albanese has made it clear his strategy for holding onto the crucial NSW seats of Gilmore and Eden-Monaro by reminding voters of Scott Morrison’s failures during the Black Summer bushfires.

During a tour of Moruya and Mogo in the south coast electorate of Gilmore, the Opposition Leader kept the focus on the fires from two summers ago that ravaged the region while the Prime Minister was holidaying in Hawaii.

Since then, the tourism region has felt the impact of floods and Covid-19, and Mr Albanese was not shy in pinning all those issues on Mr Morrison.

It is a localised example of Labor’s national strategy of trying to keep the focus on the problems plaguing the Morrison government, rather than outlining a bold vision that can be weaponised into a fear campaign by the Coalition.

Accusing Mr Morrison of abandoning the region, Mr Albanese visited a fire station as he vowed a Labor government would fund an emergency operations centre to better prepare the area for natural disasters.

He emphasised Mr Morrison’s failure to build “a single disaster prevention project” under the government’s $4bn emergency response fund, which he said had earned over $750m in interest since it was announced in 2019.

“People know that Scott Morrison went missing, people know that’s the case and people know that he has remained missing ever since,” Mr Albanese said. “It is just extraordinary and says everything about the failure of this government to be competent.”

Gilmore – held by Labor MP Fiona Phillips on a margin of 2.6 per cent – covers coastal towns from Tuross Head to Kiama, and includes the tourist destinations of Batemans Bay, Berry, Gerroa, Moruya and Mogo.

Mr Morrison hand-picked former NSW cabinet minister Andrew Constance to be the Liberal candidate for the electorate, with the Coalition needing to win seats in the state to offset potential ­losses in Queensland, Western Australia and Victoria.

When pressed on his agenda, Mr Albanese denied he was adopting a small target strategy as he listed Labor’s policies on climate change, the NBN and investment in TAFE.

“Labor will have more to say on health, including regional health, in the lead up to the election,” he said. “We’ve had so much policy out there in just a few months and that compares with the government that still acts like an opposition in exile sitting on the government benches.”

Mr Albanese spoke to small business owners in Mogo about how the bushfires, floods and the pandemic had impacted them.

Leather goods shop owner ­Lorena Granadas told Mr Albanese how difficult the last few years had been, and that she thought small business was the backbone of the Australian economy.