Federal Labor leader Anthony Albanese says NSW Labor's weekend by-election loss should be put in perspective - pointing out the Nationals have held the seat for nearly a century.
Labor's loss in the coal mining stronghold of the Upper Hunter has switched the spotlight from Premier Gladys Berejiklian's scandal-plagued minority government to Labor leader Jodi McKay.
A despondent Ms McKay conceded the defeat on Sunday, saying the result had left many in the party shell-shocked and it was time for some "soul-searching".
Labor's failure to make any gains in the seat has led to conjecture her leadership won't survive, with four contenders being touted as possible leaders: former leader Michael Daley, Chris Minns, Ryan Park and Paul Scully.
However, Mr Albanese said it was important to remember Labor had never held the previously blue ribbon Nationals' seat.
"So let's get a bit of perspective here," he told reporters on Monday.
"This is a seat whereby, frankly, a couple of elections ago we would have struggled to find people to hand out how to vote cards," he said.
Earlier, outspoken federal Labor Hunter MP Joel Fitzgibbon blamed the defeat on Labor's "brand", saying "the Labor party has to speak more about jobs and jobs security as it does about climate change".
"A lot of our base walked away from us some time ago now and it's clear that they haven't returned," Mr Fitzgibbon told ABC TV.
He said voters in the coal mining heartland were turned off by Labor's opposition to the federal government's commitment to spend $600 million building a new gas power plant in the Hunter Valley to replace the coal-fired Liddell power plant.
But Mr Albanese said Labor's opposition to the project was "the correct decision based upon what every single expert in the energy sector says", pointing out that the Berejiklian government had a policy of supporting renewables.
He pointed out the Berejiklian government had a policy of net zero emissions by 2050 and last month agreed to pay Chinese coal mining company Shenhua $100 million to withdraw from its Watermark coal mine project on the Liverpool Plains.
