Gotcha! Bushfires still burn Scott Morrison but Anthony Albanese knows the price of milk

There they were in Culburra Beach on the south coast of New South Wales: Liberal candidate Andrew Constance and his new best buddy Scott Morrison.

But the chumminess wasn't always apparent. This is a couple who've had a grouch or two in the past.

On January 2, 2020, residents of bushfire ravaged Cobargo down the coast were angry, very angry.

The prime minister thought it was a good idea to visit but found some resistance. He should be ashamed of himself, one shouted. "You're a mutt ScoMo," another yelled.

An emergency services worker refused to shake Mr Morrison's hand. The prime minister tried to grab the man's left hand, only for it, too, to be pulled away. The snub by a hero of the time haunts him to this day.

Mr Constance, then a Liberal in the NSW parliament, sided with the angry brigade. "To be honest with you, the locals probably gave him the welcome he probably deserved," he said at the time.

"I say this to the Prime Minister today, the nation wants you to open up the cheque books."

He might not have known it, but it was a masterly play. Two years on, the prime minister duly brought the cheque book, nicely written out with $40 million for roads and such like.

But those journalists have memories.

In today's press conference, they bayed like wolves around a wounded sheep. Would the prime minister apologise? "I already have apologised," Mr Morrison said, moving on swiftly, his brow furrowing a little more. "It was a difficult day."

Was it awkward for Mr Constance to have the prime minister alongside him today? Answer came there none beyond wanting to "focus on the positive and not the negative".

Mr Morrison tried to turn the chiding of two years ago into an asset. "I have people in my team who are up front with me," he said. He relishes dissent, was the implication.

The exchange illustrated Mr Morrison's problem. He wants to run as the candidate who is tried and tested, as he puts it - but there are episodes where he was tried and tested and where he himself accepts he was found wanting.

He has the strength and weakness of being in power.

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The reverse position was on display at the earlier press conference for his opponent, Anthony Albanese.

In Launceston, the Labor leader was keen to big up his experience of actual government. He had, he pointed out, been "acting prime minister".

How long were you acting prime minister, a wolf snarled. "Not that many days," Mr Albanese conceded.

But he did get in his answer to the usual gotcha question before it was even asked: "The last time I filled up, the price was $2.20. I know what the price of milk is."

He did not, however, know the current rate of unemployment or the Reserve Bank rate.

Within minutes, a hostile press headlined: "Anthony Albanese unable to answer question on official cash rate."

Hold on to your seats - or if you're Mr Constance, try to get one.