Prime Minister Scott Morrison has accused a high-profile independent candidate of "Labor Party tricks" hours after she gatecrashed his press conference to announce she'd preference his party.
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Mr Morrison's office on Friday gave media 45 minutes' notice that he and Liberal candidate Dave Sharma would be visiting a cafe in Double Bay in Malcolm Turnbull's former seat of Wentworth.
But while Mr Sharma and one of the prime minister's media advisers arrived ahead of schedule, Mr Morrison never showed.
Independent candidate Kerryn Phelps, who runs a doctors' surgery 400 metres away, seized the limelight to host an impromptu news conference.
She told the assembled reporters on Friday she'd be preferencing the Liberals in the October 20 vote.
That's a backflip on her message just five days ago, when she told voters that if they wanted to send a message to the Liberal Party they would put the Liberals last on the ticket.
Later on Friday, Mr Morrison called a second press conference at North Bondi's Galilee Catholic Primary School to spruik his schools funding plan.
"I wanted to come and be at a school like Galilee today and when I saw the program late this morning, I made the choice that I wanted to be here talking about this issue today," he told reporters.
"I know all the Labor party tricks even when they are working for the independents.
"Frankly, I'm not going to buy into them."
Asked what the trick was, Mr Morrison said: "Crashing press conferences."
Dr Phelps told reporters on Friday, with so many candidates for Wentworth, there needs to be some sort of guideline on preferences.
"The people of Wentworth are very intelligent and very politically engaged and they will know what they want to do," she said.
The local doctor said she wanted to quash rumours she was running with the support of Labor arguing she was a "true independent".
Mr Morrison threw more skepticism at Dr Phelps, arguing "she was not running to support the Liberal Party" but thanked her for directing her preferences toward Mr Sharma.
"Others will pretend to be Liberals, and they're not," he said.
"If they were, they'd be members of the Liberal Party."
The Liberal Party holds Wentworth on a 17.7 per cent margin but is expected to face backlash at the polls.
Australian Associated Press
