Scott Morrison says history suggests the Coalition won’t win any byelection in the marginal Labor seat of Eden-Monaro.

“The Liberal Party will contest the seat as I’m sure the National Partywill contest the seat but that doesn’t change the history, which would mean that it would be a one-in-a-hundred-year-event for a government in those circumstances if they were to take a seat from the Opposition,” Mr Morrison said.
“That would be a rather extraordinary outcome but it’s one we will put our best foot forward.
“But my, expectations I think you can say, are conditioned by history.”
Mr Morrison, whose personal ratings have soared due to his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, did not totally rule out his chances.
“The government has a plan. We are showing, I think, the leadership through this crisis that Australians are seeking from the government,” he said.
“And, importantly, we are focused on what success looks like for our country.
“And it’s not just beating the virus, it’s about ensuring that we can get Australia back to where we were and to make us even stronger beyond that.”
Mr Kelly, who is retiring due to ill-health, first won the seat from the Liberal Party’s Gary Nairn in 2007 and lost it in 2013 to Peter Hendy. He won it back in 2016 and currently holds it by a margin of less than 1 per cent.
Although Mr Morrison has a high approval rating due to his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, the two major parties are level pegging in the opinion polls.
Conversely, Mr Kelly, a hard working and popular local member, is considered by Labor to have a personal margin worth between 2 and 3 percentage points.
In 2018, Liberal Party plotters used the byelection defeats in the marginal Labor seats of Longman and Braddon to move against Mr Turnbull, who had inadvertently portrayed the contests as a test between him and then-Labor leader Bill Shorten.