Liberal candidate Jaymes Diaz was left red-faced and short of answers yesterday after being put on the spot by Channel Ten journalist John Hill.
Mr Diaz is running for the western Sydney seat of Greenway, one of the most marginal in New South Wales, against Labor MP Michelle Rowland.
In a six-minute interview, he spoke of the Coalition's "six-point plan" to stop asylum seeker boats, but was unable to explain what they were.
View more: The Coalition's border protection policy
He also appeared to struggle to answer a question about the Liberal Party's plan to increase Company Tax by 1.5 per cent before a campaign staff member stepped in to end the interview.
Mr Diaz, an immigration lawyer, lost out to Ms Rowland by around 1000 votes in the 2010 election.
Watch: Jaymes Diaz on the Coalition's six-point plan
Meanwhile, Opposition leader Tony Abbott has spoken in defence of Mr Diaz.
Mr Abbott said he called Mr Diaz "to commiserate with him" after watching the interview. "I gather he had done two good interviews and then he throws up in the third ... I'm afraid it happens to all of us from time to time," Mr Abbott told ABC radio in Sydney on Tuesday.
Mr Abbott says an occasional gaffe was just part of being in politics.
"Inevitably, a very experienced and slightly aggressive journalist shoves a microphone in your face and starts barking at you and it is possible to freeze," he said. "I've done it myself."
