An article, published in the Sunday Herald Sun, said the Liberal MP's Port Fairy office was "a bit shy of staff" and that "some locals reckon things have been a bit too quiet of late."

The article points out that there isn't always a staffer on hand to deal with constituent issues, and that phone calls to the office often divert to another number.

When The Standard put a call in to the Port Fairy office, the number was diverted to a Melbourne staff member.

In response, Ms McArthur said her office was "out there on four wheels".

"I even have a printer and scanner in the vehicle," she said.

"My job is to service the vast electorate in the most timely and personal manner possible. My staff and I will continue to do our work to this end."

Ms McArthur said the Western Victoria region electorate covered about one-third of rural Victoria (79,438 square kilometres) from Melton, around the coast to the SA border, and up into the Mallee and included 11 lower house seats and 24 local government areas.

"I have visited almost all of these municipalities for a full council briefing since my election," she said.

"The vast majority of these locations are a considerable distance from Port Fairy.

"I service my constituents to the best of my ability and in the most efficient and effective way. That largely involves travelling to constituents. I do not expect people to travel across Victoria to see me."

The article also suggested that some in the party wanted to see Ms McArthur move her office to Geelong to win back seats for the Coalition, and in turn ease the 'turf war' between McArthur and Roma Britnell.

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Ms McArthur said she had "no choice" on where her electorate office was located.

"Parliamentary Services decide where members have offices," she said.

"The Port Fairy office was vacated by (James) Purcell and as I was the nearest Western Victorian MP on the electorate roll to Port Fairy, I had to take that office or not employ staff, even though my home address is one-and-a-half hours from the office - a three hour round trip."

On claims her staff did not live in the electorate she said: "My staff work very hard and productively and it is the work they do that should be of importance, not their place of residence".

She said most of her work required travel with meetings outside the western Victoria region and in Melbourne.

"My own work day across the electorate frequently involves hundreds of kilometres and twelve hour days," she said.

"This was always my expectation as an upper house MP in rural and regional Victoria. I never expected a 9-5 desk job in a beautiful seaside town.

"And actually I don't think my constituents expect their MP to be office bound either. People are surprisingly pleased to see I cover all corners of the electorate to which I was elected."

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