The 38-year-old will stand as an independent in the northern beaches seat in the July 2 poll, vowing to use a social media-driven campaign in a bid to capture the youth vote.

But the Frenchs Forest resident and father-of-two has a tough task ahead of him if he is to defeat the former prime minister, who has held the seat for 22 years and has a considerable margin.

Mathison, who earlier this month was carted away by police during a protest to stop Moreton Bay fig trees being felled at Moore Park in Sydney, updated his Twitter and Facebook accounts overnight with the message: "Warringah deserves better".

High-profile Tasmania independent senator Jacqui Lambie immediately threw her support behind Mathison's parliamentary bid.

"I love independents. You go for it, James. Put those budgie smugglers on and give Tony Abbott a run," she told the Today show on Saturday.

Mathison told News Corp Australia he felt compelled to take on the Liberal Party's former leader after watching Mr Abbott's campaign launch on television two weeks ago.

Mathison claimed Mr Abbott had "broken so many promises, he's really hard to take him at his word".

He also claimed Mr Abbott's "divisive" stance on marriage equality, refugees and climate change were at odds with the values of many in his "compassionate and caring" electorate.

Mathison will target his campaign at younger voters who he said felt disenchanted or "outside" the traditional election process. He said he would crowd-fund his campaign and post his policy platform online in a series of pre-recorded video messages.

He was also in the process of getting an Uber licence to speak to residents of Warringah and canvass local issues.

Mr Abbott has held the seat of Warringah for 22 years, but his campaign has recently succumbed to infighting as rank-and-file Liberals complain over strategy and position for "life-after-Abbott", tipping the former prime minister will quit if left off Malcolm Turnbull's post-election frontbench.

Despite Mr Abbot's public statements to the contrary, many local Liberals expect him to move on after the election. A popular theory is that he will be offered a prominent diplomatic post such as Australia's high commissioner to London.

"No one expects Tony to hang around for long," one told Fairfax Media this week.

But a backer of Mr Abbott rejected the suggestion, declaring the recently ousted leader was "absolutely" committed to serve another term as a backbencher, having given up hope of a recall to the ministry under Mr Turnbull's leadership.

This story originally appeared on www.smh.com.au