Mr Lawrence said Saunders is a candidate and has not been elected by voters to represent the government. 

But Mr Saunders said he has every right to attend government announcements and will keep doing so right up until the election next March.

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"It is pretty simple, I have been invited to attend announcements because I am a candidate for the Party that is in government and holds the seat," he said.

"It is important that I show up to these announcements and that I am aware of what the government is doing."

Member for Dubbo Troy Grant said Mr Saunders is forming vital relationships with ministers by attending government announcements.

“Currently, along with the Liberal Party, we form government in NSW and as the man who is the government candidate it is vital that Dugald be in a position to form relationships with Ministers and know what is happening with the various projects across the electorate,” he said.

We are in a golden age of building and infrastructure in places like Dubbo, Wellington, Mudgee and Narromine, and if the Coalition wins government again Dugald will hopefully be responsible for that moving forward.” 

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But Mr Lawrence said Mr Saunders' presence at government announcements does not pass the pub test.

"Government announcements cost money to put on. Ministers fly in and so forth. Here we see government announcements used partly for National Party political purposes. How is that right?" he said.

"I am calling on Dugald to run his own campaign and not accept patronage and resources from the taxpayer like this. We see a pretty bizarre campaign so far. One candidate is using state government resources; the other is running blatantly political "business" advertising across the electorate. You almost have to laugh, except it's so serious."

However independent candidate Mathew Dickerson said he couldn't care less what Mr Saunders does.

“I don’t spend my time looking at what other candidates are doing or what events they are attending," he said.

"If I spent one second thinking about other candidates that is one second wasted that I wasn’t thinking about how I can be a fantastic representative for this electorate.