"What do you know about the roads, you're not a local," one reporter asked.

Mr Hastie was on the hustings and under siege with Prime Minister Tony Abbott on Wednesday morning in Armadale, smack bang in the Canning electorate.

It's the second time the PM has been in Perth in a fortnight to spruik Mr Hastie's campaign ahead of the September byelection in the crucial seat that was triggered by the death of long-standing member Don Randall in July.

Traffic congestion and the need for a bridge linking the cities of Armadale and Cockburn are looming as two of the by-election's biggest issues.

Both Cockburn and Armadale councils have lobbied the state and federal governments to get $290 million to widen a stretch of Armadale Road and a new bridge over Kwinana Freeway to link Armadale and North Lake roads.

When Mr Abbott finally let Mr Hastie speak, the former SAS soldier rattled off what he thought were the traffic issues in the area but wasn't chuffed when a reporter questioned his knowledge as he didn't live in the area.

"How much do you know about those roads, because you are not a local and you haven't driven on them," a reporter asked.

"As you are aware, I was a member of Defence for 13 years and no-one in Defence is a local anywhere," Mr Hastie shot back.

"In order to run for Canning, I have decided to move my family down here. We want to settle down, we want to buy a house."

When the reporter tried to ask Mr Hastie another question, he shot him down, saying "just let me finish".

While Mr Hastie seemed a little rattled, he quickly gained his composure.

"I have gotten to know the electorate pretty well over the last few weeks," he said.

"I have been driving around and I am have been talking to a lot people and I am confident I am across the issues the people of Canning are concerned about."

Meanwhile, Labor's candidate for the seat, Matt Keogh, said the race for Canning would be tight.

But he denies Labor is "running dead" in the seat.

"We are not running dead at all," Mr Keogh told ABC radio.

"We are playing to win."

Sky News on Tuesday reported Liberal deputy leader Julie Bishop told a cabinet meeting in Canberra Labor wasn't devoting much in the way of resources to the byelection battle.

Labor was instead looking to the 2016 federal election, when a redraw of electoral boundaries will result in parts of Canning being absorbed into a new seat of Burt, she reportedly said.