Tony Abbott is "getting the old team back together" as he fights to hold onto his seat of Warringah on Sydney's northern beaches, recruiting Liberal Party elder John Howard to join him for a mall walk.

The former prime ministers met with locals, posed for selfies and held babies at Warringah Mall on Monday.

Mr Abbott stopped to buy two sirloin steaks from a butcher, telling reporters: "If you don't have the fat, you don't have the taste".

Mr Abbott said Mr Howard was the campaign "maestro" and the greatest living Liberal.

"It's just wonderful to have the old team back together," he said.

Polling suggests Mr Abbott, who's held Warringah comfortably for 25 years, is in danger of losing the seat on Saturday.

Socially progressive independent candidate Zali Steggall has been chipping away at Mr Abbott's primary vote while campaigning on climate change, transport and cost of living.

Bookies have Ms Steggall, a former Olympic skier, as the narrow favourite in the contest, though Mr Abbott said he was feeling more confident in the final days of the campaign.

"I'm more confident now than I was a month ago, but this is going to go down to the wire," Mr Abbott told reporters.

During the mall walk, Mr Howard described Mr Abbott as "a political realist".

"He understands he has a fight," Mr Howard said.

"This is going to be a tough election (but) I'm getting more confident as we get closer."

Mr Abbott acknowledged climate change was an issue in his electorate.

"Climate change is an important issue, it's certainly not the only issue, but it is an important one and the key is to get the balance right, now I think that the government has done that," he said.

Asked whether Warringah locals were angry or had an appetite for change, Mr Abbott said: "I think voters in Warringah overwhelmingly want to see a Liberal government returned. That's what they want."