In yet another war of words between the major party candidates, Mr Lawrence said he had found a number of instances where Mr Grant had let his electorate down by opposing tough measures on crime.

Mr Lawrence has begun distributing a flyer to Dubbo mailboxes in which he claims Mr Grant is the 'most soft on crime state member we have had in living memory'.

The Labor candidate claimed his Nationals rival voted for the 'most lenient bail laws in decades', was part of a government that closed three prisons, opposed mandatory sentencing for paedophiles and opposed calls for longer jail sentences for sex offenders.

"He is trying to appeal to those of us concerned about crime by pretending he is a "tough on crime" politician. In fact, he has no answers to crime and it has worsened on his watch," Mr Lawrence said.

He said the changes to the Bail Act had been welcomed by defence lawyers and pointed to the government's recruitment of former Labor Attorney-General John Hatzistergos to review the changes as evidence the Coalition had got it wrong.

However Mr Grant refuted most of the claims made by Mr Lawrence and said the accusations were either lies or showed a misunderstanding of the situation.

"This is a desperate act by a desperate man. He has distributed a brochure that is full of lies to try and mislead the public. He is telling the community I am soft on crime when it's him that is as soft as custard tart when it comes to crime," Mr Grant said.

In particular Mr Grant objected to suggestions he had helped bring about a weakening of the Bail Act.

"Labor has supported every amendment made during the 55th Parliament, everything has been bipartisan so there wasn't ever a vote. There was complete agreement about what we were doing and people only have to look at Hansard to see that," the Deputy Premier said.

Mr Grant said the reason the government made changes to the reforms were because the court had failed to implement them correctly, which had resulted in some violent criminals successfully applying for bail.

Mr Lawrence said he had been prompted to distribute the information because Mr Grant had been incorrectly portraying him as being soft on crime as a result of his work for the Aboriginal Legal Service.

"Every time Troy attacks me as soft on crime because I have been a dedicated lawyer for my clients I will be reminding the community that Troy has virtually been a darling of defence lawyer organisations," he said.

"He backed them on bail and he backed them on mandatory sentencing of sex offenders.

"Troy has failed to introduce or initiate any legislation to justify his claim to be 'tough on crime'."