More than two years after her family home was destroyed by bushfire, Jan Harris says she has still not had a full night of sleep.
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While her home was one of the first ravaged by the March 2018 bushfire in the Tathra district, and still without approval to rebuild, she says, despite the harship, she can't see her family living anywhere else in the world.
Ms Harris said the home was "heaven" for her husband, and during their time in temporary housing the family has not often been able to revisit the property where their home once stood, due to the heavy impact of the loss.
"At times we've felt we would never be in a position where we could rebuild," Ms Harris said while meeting with Labor candidate for the Eden-Monaro by-election Kristy McBain and Labor housing spokesman Jason Clare.on Thursday at her Vimy Ridge Rd property.
"Where would we go?
"You are in a very difficult state [after a bushfire]."
Plans are now back from a civil engineer, and with a development application soon to be handed to council, Ms Harris said the government's recently announced HomeBuilder scheme does not provide enough time for survivors to assess what they need and want after the devastation and navigate building regulations.
"Those helping have been listening, but that's not coming out of Canberra," she said.
"The Prime Minister's comments are hurtful."
On Friday, Prime Minister Scott Morrison told reporters he has allowed for the scheme to be flexible for bushfire survivors, and denied claims by Labor they will miss out.
Mr Morrison said the grants will be available to residents rebuilding after the bushfires, promising he has given "flexibility to the states to continue to provide" the funds if "there are any delays that occur because of planning processes at the state level".
He said he will ensure residents are "not disadvantaged because building in a bushfire zone has some new rules and controls".
"So people won't miss out on that [the grants]," he said.
"I know the Labor Party was saying they are, but they've been, you know, they're banging on about lots of stuff that isn't true."
Mr Clare said his party's request the government extend the end of the year cut-off for qualification for the $25,000 grant scheme be extended to allow time for it to help the bushfire rebuild process.
"In addition to homes lost, thousands of families in Eden-Monaro live in fire-prone areas and narrowly avoided losing their homes," he said.
"There are a lot of local families who want to upgrade homes to make them more fire-safe. But this costs money.
"This would be a win-win for local communities. It would make homes safer and provide much-needed work for local businesses."
Ms Harris said she was concerned the grant funding will be spent outside of the region, as tradespeople based in other areas will be required to do rebuilding work.