The Border's two federal members have vastly different levels of experience in politics, but in the time since the 2019 election, coronavirus has changed what is required of them as leaders.

Monday will mark one year since they were elected to represent the Indi and Farrer communities, the first time for one and the seventh for the other.

Dr Haines stood on stage in Wangaratta at a party with the "orange army" last May and claimed victory, saying she was privileged to take on the new role.

A year later, she feels the same way.

"As the events of the past 12 months have rolled out, that responsibility is completely apparent to me," she said.

"So few people in history have been a Member of Parliament and you know that if you are, you have a serious job to do."

Just a few months into the job, her leadership role changed when the electorate was devastated by bushfires.

"The safety of citizens is number one, and that was a very big event," Dr Haines said.

"I felt it keenly and I was so desperately worried for the people of the Upper Murray and in the Alpine area and, like many people in that region, had many sleepless nights waiting for the news seeing how the night had fared."

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The response from emergency services filled her with pride, but the fires also exposed the impact of mobile blackspots in the Upper Murray.

"It strengthens my resolve, having had that experience," she said.

The MP's role was to be a "steady and calm influencer", reliable source of information and an advocate to the government for funding and resources.

She showed people like Health Minister Greg Hunt through the Upper Murray region so he could see the devastation with his own eyes.

The bushfire recovery is still in progress, but now we also have the coronavirus pandemic.

Dr Haines said it was clear from the start that all of government had to come together and she needed to support programs rolled out based on the advice of the chief health officer.

"I think the government has done an excellent job, but it becomes obvious now a few weeks in that there's wrinkles in the policy and there's people who missed out and there's fine-tuning to be done," she said.

"My role has changed substantially now because what my office became very much was a frontline clearing house for our constituents who had so many questions, so many concerns ... People are desperate."

Inquiries included questions about health through to how to access JobKeeper and JobSeeker.

Dr Haines made a point of introducing herself to the government ministers before asking for anything for Indi to be "a decent human being".

She said she now has good relationships with Mr Hunt, Education Minister Dan Tehan, Infrastructure Minister Michael McCormack and Treasurer Josh Frydenberg - all who hear from her regularly.

The promise from Dr Haines after last year's election was to push the Coalition "to bring to Australia decent action on climate".

"I'm really proud that just shy of my first anniversary I've now got a nationwide consultation process happening on community energy. I've put out a significant piece of work to develop a discussion paper. I'm really proud of this because it's an opportunity for people all over Australia to contribute to public policy," she said.

"Climate change is not a trivial matter, it's not going to go away.

"I think what we've learnt from the pandemic, about how to work together, about how to prioritise, about how to listening to experts. - look at the results when we've listened to the experts on coronavirus, it's stunning.

"Imagine if we did the same when it came to climate change."

When the federal government reshuffled its cabinet after the election, Ms Ley was promoted back to the front bench in the role of Environment Minister, which she said was an "enormous privilege".

It meant she had a key role to play after the bushfires, as well as supporting Farrer constituents during the pandemic.

"As Environment Minister I travelled across most of the seven burnt areas and saw a lot of the immediate aftermath, both from a human and an environmental perspective. That looms very large in my mind," she said.

"For government, the challenge of COVID has been the biggest challenge I think the government has faced since I've been elected ... We wanted as an electorate office to be there for every single person who had questions, who needed help, who didn't understand or who needed reassurance."

The bushfire recovery will not be just about rebuilding homes, but building back animal and plant species in the environment.

"When conservation groups say they're happy with the work I've done, I actually feel proud," Ms Ley said.

"The bushfires highlighted the important role of adapting to climate change and I made very strong statements that the risk and intensity of bushfires is increased by climate change and that there's much that we can do to develop resilience and adaptation.

"I'm very pleased that even though money is tight in terms of our budget, I've been able to secure a further $150 million, so that's a total of $250 million, for our bushfire recovery package."