The Federal Parliamentary Secretary for Bushfire Reconstruction, Bill Shorten, has defended the effort to rebuild Marysville after the Black Saturday bushfires.

Locals have complained about the time it is taking to rebuild homes and major infrastructure destroyed on Black Saturday.

In a briefing note handed to the Prime Minister last week, some residents have compared the delays to those faced by residents of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

Mr Shorten says rebuilding is going ahead, but he concedes he would like it to be done faster.

"If we were to paint a picture that nothing is happening, that wouldn't be fair or correct," he said.

"Also it wouldn't be fair or correct to say that the reconstruction authority isn't putting in a fair bit of work.

"There's 30 communities, you've got to talk to them, if someone from Spring street or Canberra just tells people what their community's going to look like, that would be a mistake too."

Marysville resident Doug Walters says red tape is delaying the rebuilding effort.

"We're really concerned that a lot of our community is drifting away, and they're not coming back," he said.

"There are lots of reasons for that but one of the biggies is that things aren't happening quickly enough. Things aren't moving."

But Premier John Brumby says the rebuilding process is going well.

"I know there have been some critics in Marysville, but don't forget Marysville was a crime scene for three months," he said.

"So here we are, six months after it's been removed as a crime scene, all of the blocks are cleared, you've got businesses that are starting back up again in Marysville, you've got tenders that are being let for major projects, you've got tens of millions of dollars of work about to start."