Maxine campaigns on Tony's turf

MAXINE McKew is clearly not satisfied with the scalp of just one Liberal leader.

MAXINE McKew is clearly not satisfied with the scalp of just one Liberal leader.

Having famously ousted John Howard from Bennelong in 2007, Ms McKew spent the first week day of this year's campaign in the Sydney beachside suburb of Manly -- in Tony Abbott's electorate of Warringah.

The former ABC journalist was in Liberal Party territory in her capacity as Parliamentary Secretary for Infrastructure, to unveil a plaque commemorating a $2.8 million upgrade of the Manly promenade, jointly funded by the federal government and the local council.

After a couple of hours of pressing the flesh in Warringah, which is comfortably held by the Liberals with a margin of 8.8 per cent, Ms McKew then donned her hat as Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Development, and flew to Darwin for a series of industry meetings and to unveil a series of bike paths funded by the federal government. Ms McKew had committed to her appearances in Manly and Darwin long before the election was called and she will be back in Bennelong this afternoon.

But given that she holds her seat by just 1.4 per cent, the decision to campaign outside her electorate yesterday raised a few eyebrows, including those of former tennis star and commentator John Alexander, the Liberal candidate for her northern Sydney seat.

"It's certainly contrary to what Maxine said on the weekend, that she would spend all of her time campaigning in the electorate," Mr Alexander said.

"But it's absolutely her choice to run her campaign as she sees fit. Obviously she has some other political commitments but we don't have any other distractions."

Ms McKew said the people of Bennelong understood her broader political responsibilities, and her commitment to her electorate had not wavered since her victory over John Howard in 2007.

"I think residents of Bennelong understand that parliamentary secretaries need to work closely with local communities and state and territory governments across the country," she said.

Bennelong is being targeted by both parties as a must-win seat. Both Labor and Liberal strategists are publicly talking up their chances of victory, but they admit that it's a hard result to call, due largely to the "Howard factor".

"Maxine ran a good campaign last time but it's hard to know whether she won because people were tired of Howard and so voted for her, or whether she would have won by more if not for the numbers of people who stuck by Howard because he was the Prime Minister," one Liberal insider told The Australian.