The federal Labor leader joined the campaign trail with his Labor colleagues across the Illawarra yesterday.

Police may have been called in to hold back protesters at the University of Wollongong's SMART Infrastructure Facility earlier in the day, but in Kiama he received a far different reception.

Mr Albanese joined NSW Labor leader Chris Minns and state election candidate Katelin McInerney for a walk along Terralong Street, where locals shook his hand, did fist pumps, asked for selfies and even passed their baby over for a photo.

The PM even stopped in to get some lunch at well known pie eatery Earnest Arthur, where staff posed for selfies and gushed as the PM asked what was on offer.

"I suggested he get a massaman beef [pie], that is my personal favourite," staff member Jenny Wilson said.

"He paid with cash and that was a bit surprising from the prime minister."

Her colleague Katrina O'Reilly-Fullerton said she was starstruck that Mr Albanese came into the store twice during his walkabout.

"It's not something that happens every day and I was caught up in the moment," she said.

Unlike the then PM Tony Abbott who chowed down on an onion in front of the media in 2015, Mr Albanese chose to take his pie back to the car and eat it on the way to Callala Bay in the Shoalhaven, his final South Coast stop for the day.

Former Liberal now Independent MP, Gareth Ward, slammed the PM's visit as nothing more than a "transparent exercise".