Peta Credlin, the former chief of staff to Tony Abbott, says reports she had been approached to challenge a federal cabinet minister for a blue-ribbon Melbourne Liberal seat were "ridiculous".
A group of millionaire Victorian Liberal Party members were said to have wanted Ms Credlin to oust Revenue Minister Kelly O'Dwyer from the seat of Higgins.
Ms Credlin, now a political commentator and presenter on Sky News, says her name often gets mentioned because the Liberal Party "sadly doesn't have enough senior women around in order to put them forward".
"If people think they are helping the government by having these sort of stories out there regardless whether it is Kelly O'Dwyer or anyone else, I don't think challenging a sitting member is a good look," she told Sky News on Sunday.
She says it certainly isn't something that is rewarded in the Liberal party and wasn't her style either.
But she said Ms O'Dwyer, who has just had her second baby, was clearly having difficulties in the Victorian Liberal division.
Ms Credlin believes the minister has suffered because of the superannuation reforms that were put forward under her portfolio in such a hurried fashion last year.
"Very few of the front bench could argue for them or even explain them," she said.
