The husband of the last Liberal Indi MP Sophie Mirabella believes Mr Martin would have won if he was preselected earler than December last year.

"The Liberal Party really made an error in not preselecting much earlier and the reason they didn't preselect earlier was internal party warfare," Mr Mirabella said.

"Steve didn't have time to build the profile he needed.

"He did really well but he could have been out there for another six to 10 months and that's what he should have been enabled to do."

Independent Helen Haines won the poll, despite a swing to the Liberal Parrty.

Mr Mirabella attributed Dr Haines' success to on-the-ground support.

"Those people plastered the whole joint with their orange galahs," he said.

The Liberal Party Victoria executive member does not believe a flyer from his group in Dr Haines' orange colour hurt Mr Martin's vote.

"I think it worked in our favour actually," Mr Mirabella said, citing voters questioning Dr Haines' views which were put on the pamphlet.

"Enough people said to me 'is this true?'."

Mr Mirabella said Dr Haines had been given a "leg-up" by being included on ABC show Q and A and suggested some swinging voters may have thought she was a good option "under a Labor government and that hasn't happened of course".

The view of Nationals campaign manager Bill Sykes that his group's worst Indi result was due to Mrs Mirabella not being the Liberal candidate was shot down.

"For Bill Sykes' first public comment (after the election) to be to slag off Sophie, apart from being preposterous, is a bit of a slap in the face to a lot of National Party members who worked hard to get the Coalition over the line," Mr Mirabella said.

"The National Party is very disappointed at their vote and he's looking to blame somebody and who more convenient than Sophie."