"If it's known that you were going to do a street walk in Penrith, the last thing you want to do, 'Mr Harbour-side Mansion', is look like you don't know and you're not welcome in Western Sydney." Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull with Liberal candidate Fiona Scott in Sydney on Wednesday. Credit:Andrew Meares The planned campaign stroll was summarily scratched from Mr Turnbull's itinerary after journalists pressed Ms Scott on whether she had switched her support from Mr Abbott to Mr Turnbull in the September 14 leadership ballot. Ms Scott refused to say, but the belief that she had abandoned the former prime minister has taken hold in sections of the Liberal Party, touching off a minor civil war with hostile emails flying and campaign resources diverted to neighbouring seats by party officials still loyal to Mr Abbott. For his part, Mr Abbott did a positive thing for party unity on Thursday telling his local paper that he fully backed the government's superannuation changes despite once branding similar moves a "senior's tax".

Ms Credlin said the campaign team should have known the questions over the leadership were coming and either not gone to Lindsay, or stuck to the schedule. Peta Credlin with Tony Abbott in 2012. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen "I would've thought, particularly with the Prime Minister there, that they might have been a bit more agile, a bit more nimble ... if she's not pump-primed and ready to go with an answer they should have just moved that visit because that's the key of a campaign team," she said. Asked if the Prime Minister should have cancelled the street walk, Ms Credlin, credited as the tactical authority of Mr Abbott's tightly scripted and effective 2010 and 2013 election campaigns, was definitive. "I wouldn't have cancelled, I wouldn't have cancelled," she said.

Ms Credlin cited a confrontation between Mr Turnbull and a single mother in Melbourne on Thursday as an example of what can happen on street walks, but said while getting a hostile reaction from a voter was inevitable at some point, it was how the leader responded that mattered most. I would've thought, particularly with the Prime Minister there that they might have been a bit more agile, a bit more nimble. Tony Abbott's former chief of staff Peta Credlin Also on the Sky panel with Ms Credlin was former NSW Labor premier Kristina Keneally, who delivered some tough advice to her own side, telling Labor candidates not backing their party's policy on boat turn-backs that they were out of line. "I do think it is incredibly indulgent for some candidates to feel that in an election campaign, you can just freely speak your mind, never mind what the party policy is," Ms Keneally said. "If it is a conscience issue then I would have thought they should have examined their consciences before they accepted party endorsement.

"For others who are not going to win your seat, you are only undermining the party's chances of getting elected to government by indulging in this kind of run-at-the-mouth commentary on what is a white-hot issue in an election campaign." Campaigning in Moorabbin in Melbourne's south-east suburbs, Mr Turnbull was confronted by Melinda, a single mother who was worried about circumstances for her sons. "The cost of school is going up and up and up and yet we're not getting any more money and now you're going to take the family tax benefits away. It's not just single mums you're hurting," she said. Follow us on Twitter