A Liberal candidate who suffered a humiliating loss to Labor says ethnic candidates in western Sydney were treated as ''second-class citizens'' by the Liberal Party campaign hierarchy.

Andrew Nguyen has claimed in an interview with Fairfax Media that Tony Abbott's campaign staff escorted him away from an appearance by the then opposition leader in Liverpool during the campaign.

Fairfax has confirmed with another Liberal Party member who witnessed the incident that Mr Nguyen was escorted to his car by Justin De Domenico, a Liberal Party operative sent to supervise the campaign in Fowler.

''I would say Justin removed me. I looked like a criminal and he was a policeman removing me from there,'' Mr Nguyen said. ''I was given no reason, I was escorted to my car and they made sure I turned right towards my [Cabramatta] office and didn't turn to come back to Westfield shopping centre.''

Mr Nguyen said ethnic candidates including himself, Jaymes Diaz in Greenway and Martin Zaiter in Parramatta were treated like ''second-class citizens'', warned not to speak to the media or even answer their phones to unknown numbers.

''The Liberal Party won't win western Sydney for the next 10 years because of the way they treated the ethnic candidates and the ethnic voters,'' he said.

Pictures from Mr Abbott's

street walk in Liverpool - parts of which are in the electorate of Fowler - on August 19 show him with Werriwa candidate Kent Johns and Liberal MP Craig Kelly from nearby Hughes.

Mr Nguyen, 74, is seething at his treatment, having mortgaged his Bankstown home to plough an estimated $300,000 into his campaign. Mr Nguyen, who arrived in Australia as a refugee in 1979, said he spent a further $90,000 out of his own pocket to pay for campaign literature translated into Vietnamese, Arabic and Indian.

He said Mr Abbott had spent a lot of time with Fiona Scott in Lindsay and thought he would expect to see him when he visited Liverpool, inside the Fowler electorate.

He said he was gagged from speaking to the media, including the local Vietnamese channel of SBS radio and Vietnamese press, or from taking part in any public debates. This meant he could not respond to what he calls a smear campaign by the Labor campaign team of Chris Hayes, who eventually won the seat with a thumping 9.4 per cent swing to him.

The dirt sheet, ''the facts about Andrew Nguyen'', claimed Mr Nguyen is a property developer and a migration agent and quoted a letter from state Liberal Charlie Lynn, a political enemy, that Mr Nguyen ''isn't fit for public office''.

Mr Nguyen said: ''How can I respond to a smear campaign if I can't talk to the media? We were told we would be disendorsed if we spoke to journalists. We were given an instruction not to answer the phone if we didn't recognise the number.''

A Liberal Party member who saw Mr De Domenico escort Mr Nguyen away said: ''It was all part of keeping candidates away from the media who they thought might embarrass them like Diaz.''

Mr De Domenico did not answer his phone.

Liberal Party director Mark Neeham said there was no order to avoid media. ''Each request was considered on its merits,'' he said.

''Head office and the local party gave Andrew a huge amount of support in the lead-up to the campaign. I have not heard about Andrew Nguyen being kept away [from the Liverpool event].''

A Liberal backer of Mr Nguyen's said he was ''gobsmacked'' by the result in Fowler. ''Look at the results by individual booths, he was being beaten in Vietnamese areas like Lansvale, Cabramatta and Mount Pritchard,'' the source said.

A Liberal source said: ''He was a dud candidate, simple as that.''