"These people just can’t help themselves. They are all negative. They don’t know what they're for, but by God, they know what they're against." That statement will rile many political players and observers who regard Abbott's style of politics as relentlessly negative. Perhaps more than anyone else, Abbott has held Australia back from a long-term strategy on climate change. He won a mandate to unwind the Gillard government's "carbon tax", and led a revolt against the Turnbull government's centrepiece National Energy Guarantee. Steggall has placed climate change front and centre of her campaign, hoping that in 2019 the voters of Warringah will want more than their long-serving MP is prepared to give them. But Abbott senses his opponent has little to offer. "What's her policy on climate change?" he asks. "My government presided over policies which mean that we will over-achieve our Kyoto target and we're well and truly on track to achieve the Paris target. What's her policy?"

[Steggall says she wants an orderly end to coal-fired power plants, a focus on renewable energy and the development of new clean technologies.] Abbott insists the Coalition has a satisfactory climate change policy going into this election, though many Liberal MPs are convinced the party needs something new to offer. A big boost to the Abbott-era "Direct Action" fund could be on the cards in the budget. "It’s quite possible we might go back to Direct Action and renew the Emissions Reduction Fund," Abbott tells The Sun-Herald and The Sunday Age. "If we have to reduce emissions, I think direct action is the best way of doing it. Tony Abbott meets Joy Latos, who despairs at the campaign to try to oust him from the seat. Credit:Jessica Hromas But Abbott also argues the political potency of the issue is overstated. "If you look at the polls, climate change rates no more strongly today than it did a decade or so back," he says.

Instead, the ex-PM is focused on entirely local problems. He has pledged to fight tooth-and-nail to fast-track a proposed tunnel linking the Northern Beaches to the CBD. He has called for a halt to residential developments in the area. And he wants more toilets in Manly. A video of a shirtless Abbott outside a portaloo demanding more public bathrooms for the busy tourist spot attracted howls of derision last weekend. For some critics, it was proof he had failed to deliver for the electorate for the past 25 years. This is the one accusation that genuinely angers Abbott. "That's a smear, that's an absolute smear," he says. He talks proudly about his regular surf patrols, volunteering with the fire brigade and raising money for charity on the annual Pollie Pedal. "I’d back my local record against anybody else running in the Warringah campaign," he says. For other critics, the portaloo video triggered something else – a feeling that there was something jarring or unbecoming about a former prime minister spruiking dunnies. Abbott's response reveals much about his lack of pretence or ceremony.

"Democracy is very humbling, and that’s a good thing, not a bad thing. I’m not too proud to do all this stuff, and you can’t be too proud to do all this stuff," he says. "A lot of politics is very, very basic. People want their potholes filled, they want their rubbish removed. They do not like noisy neighbours having parties all night. And they expect their politician – any politician they can get access to – to help fix all that stuff. "And sometimes you can and sometimes you can’t, but you've always got to be interested in it - because if it interests them, it has got to interest you." A Rhodes scholar, former journalist and keen writer, Abbott is fond of intellectual debates on big-picture issues. He muses about Brexit and opines on the future of conservatism and the centre-right. But all that is secondary, he argues, to the main gig. "The job of being a member of Parliament is not all making great speeches on the great issues of life and death. It’s about solving very practical problems as best you can," he says.

"But you only get the licence to do the stuff you want to do if you are prepared also to do the stuff that is not necessarily what you want to do, because that’s part of the job." Former prime minister Tony Abbott meets voters at Bridgepoint Shopping Centre in Mosman on Saturday. Credit:Jessica Hromas Out and about in Warringah on Saturday, Abbott puts his skills as a political veteran to work. An army of about 50 "Team Tony" volunteers has turned out to knock on doors and hand out flyers on a hot and sunny morning. The squad includes Abbott's sister Christine Forster and her wife, Virginia Flitcroft, as well as Liberal Party federal vice-president Teena McQueen and former Fairfax Media chairman Roger Corbett. Abbott is positioning himself as the financial underdog, asserting: "The big money in this campaign will certainly be with the independents." He says the cash will come from unions, GetUp and "wealthy people with a vested interest in the renewables sector", an undisguised reference to Turnbull's son Alex, a hedge fund manager.

In the nondescript malls of Balgowlah and Mosman, the former PM isn't constantly mobbed, but he is always recognised. He encounters a few angry detractors but meets several devout fans who are seething at what they see as an insurgency against their serving member. Graham Kells, a Military Cross winner and chairman of the Mosman Anzac Memorial Hall Trust, can't speak highly enough of Abbott when they cross paths at Bridgepoint Shopping Centre on Saturday. Loading "He's the answer," Kells says. "He's got values and he's got dedication, and he speaks up. He doesn't equivocate. You might not agree with everything he says, but he believes in this country." One area where Abbott's constituents definitely disagree with him is on same-sex marriage. Warringah voted 75 per cent for "Yes" in the postal survey, one of the highest in the country. Abbott has not abandoned his well-known opposition to marriage equality but he is, oddly enough, now taking credit for the result.