Albanese: solutions, not opposition approach still working

The poll on Saturday is set to be tight, and while many pundits have pointed to the 100-year history of governments losing byelections, Mr Albanese said history may not be so favourable to his party.

"The last time there was a pandemic," was the last time the government won a byelection, Mr Albanese points out. Eden-Monaro was also a bellwether seat, voting the way of the government for decades before retiring member Mike Kelly won in 2016 and 2019.

A loss for Labor would be viewed in Canberra as more of a problem for the party than it would be for the government, but Mr Albanese rejected the idea it was a test of his leadership.

If Labor gets over the line on Saturday, it is likely to be with the help of preferences from the Shooters, Fishers and Famers Party, but Mr Albanese didn't acknowledge any issue with taking preferences from a party that has questioned climate change.

"They will decide their own policies and their own preferences," he said.

"Our preferences are going to the Greens first and then straight down the ballot paper to maximise the formal vote. People make their own decision on preferences.

"I would expect that we will get a range of preferences from the National Party, people who vote for the Nats and people who vote for independents as well."

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The government is yet to announce what changes to the JobKeeper and JobSeeker schemes will be made when they are set to expire in September. Asked how he would approach reducing the stimulus measures, Mr Albanese said he would have ensured more workers were eligible for the scheme from the start.

"There needs to be a practical transition," Mr Albanese said, although he wouldn't be drawn on whether that should be removing subsidies sector by sector or a reduction in the subsidy paid.

"We're not going to be in government in September, we want the government to explain what it's going to do and they should do that before Saturday. People should have certainty about what is going to occur."

Since the coronavirus outbreak re-emerged in suburbs in northwest Melbourne, the Queensland government has told Victorians to stay away and NSW has threatened fines and jail time on Victorians who travel to the state from hotspots, but Mr Albanese said it was just states listening to their own medical advice

"We shouldn't be critical of one state over another for the sake of it, they're following the advice of their respective medical officers."

"No one wants restrictions to be in place for one day more than necessary, but we know that if we're complacent and we're not vigilant, then what you'll get is a reimposition of restrictions that will have a more adverse economic impact than if we had the gradual lifting."

It's just over a year since Mr Albanese became leader of the Labor party, and he defended his approach in the job, especially over the period of the coronavirus pandemic.

Making a "conscious choice" to not oppose all announcements from the government had led to improvements to government policy, including widening the number of people eligible for JobKeeper wage subsidies, he said. Problems with early access to superannuation and border controls had also been pointed out by Labor, he said.

"On a range of the measures we pointed out the weaknesses and in some cases, the government has fixed some of the problems but not all of them."

Even though gestures like writing to Prime Minister Scott Morrison and offering to work on a bipartisan solution to energy policy had been rebuffed, Mr Albanese said his tactics would show voters his values and allow him to tell the story of what the party could offer more than the hundreds of costed policies taken to the last election.

"I believe people had conflict fatigue," he said.

"I do think Australians to look for solutions rather than arguments."