Prime Minister Scott Morrison says it is "offensive" to suggest new grants targeted at industries hit especially hard during the Black Summer bushfires are pork-barrelling.
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Mr Morrison announced the $86 million grants scheme in a visit to Eden on Tuesday, less than two weeks out from the Eden-Monaro byelection.
The scheme includes around $50 million in grants for the timber mill industry, with around 2 million hectares of productive forest lost during the 2019-20 fires.
It also has $31 million for apple growers, with an estimated 20 per cent of apple trees and supporting farm infrastructure destroyed or damaged during the fires; and $5 million for wine producers, whose 2020 harvest was tainted by bushfire smoke.
Wood processing and agriculture are major industries for local government areas in the Eden-Monaro electorate.
But asked on Tuesday whether the byelection had played a role in the formation of the grants scheme, Mr Morrison said: "I think that's a pretty offensive question to people who have lost everything in bushfires".
"These measures are targeted to areas that have been affected by the bushfires in Victoria, in NSW, in South Australia, in Queensland," Mr Morrison said.
"Now, Eden-Monaro is a big electorate but it's not that big, to cover four states. This is about helping communities rebuild, rebuild their communities, rebuild their industries [and] regather their jobs."
However Labor's emergency management spokesman Murray Watt said the need for economic support for bushfire-affected regions "has been known for months".
"It's very sad that Scott Morrison has only shown up when votes are at stake and when television cameras are around," Senator Watt said.
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Economic modelling by Ernst and Young tendered to the bushfires royal commission showed the Eden-Monaro local government areas of Eurobodalla, Bega Valley and Snowy Valleys were among the hardest-hit economies from the bushfires, when measured in terms of a severity index.
It estimated the Bega Valley would cop a $218.9 million hit due to the fires, while in Eurobodalla the economic impact was tipped to be $150.3 million.
Around 80 per cent of forestry areas in Bega Valley and Eurobodalla were affected by the fires. While 20 to 30 per cent of burnt timber can be salvaged, the value of burnt timber is 10 to 20 per cent of the original price. Production at the Eden Timber Mill was expected to be 0 per cent for 12 months.
In the Snowy Valleys, the impact was expected to be around $188.7 million. Approximately 50 to 56 per cent of its forestry assets were lost and there was expected to be a fall in agricultural production of 45 per cent over the next year.
Agriculture Minister David Littleproud said the grants for wine producers in particular were an acknowledgment that the impacts of the fire were being felt beyond the immediate fire scar. Before, only producers in areas that were declared disaster zones could receive a $75,000 grant from government to help with the effects of the fire.
