The battle for the ACT's second Senate spot will intensify on Saturday when Canberra Liberals launch their federal election campaign.
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Senate candidate Zed Seselja will be joined at the launch by the candidate for Fraser, Elizabeth Lee, and the candidate for Canberra, Tom Sefton.
Mr Seselja is expected to push the Liberals' theme that Labor has cut or is planning to cut more than 10,000 public service jobs.
However, the Greens are about to begin a campaign to try to white ant the Liberals with criticism of Mr Seselja from a person the Greens say is a Liberal turncoat.
As well, the Labor Party is stepping up its warning of the impact of the public service job cuts promised by an incoming Coalition government. The Labor and Liberal parties have traditionally shared the two Senate spots allocated to Canberra because of their core support in the electorate.
In an earlier election, however, the Liberals' Margaret Reid did have to rely on One Nation preferences to be returned.
The Greens are running a high-profile campaign to take the Liberals' Senate place for the ACT.
The territory's two lower house electorates - Fraser on the northside and Canberra on the southside - are rated safe Labor seats.
It was not known at the time of writing if the Canberra Liberals' launch would be attended by members of the Liberal Party federal leadership team or whether former ACT senator Gary Humphries, who was defeated by Mr Seselja for Liberal preselection, was intending to go to the event. With the public service being the main battleground for the ACT, the Coalition is promising to cut 12,000 positions by natural attrition.
An incoming Coalition government would be expected to retain the cuts begun by the Labor Party, including reductions to the upper echelons of the public service and a higher so-called efficiency dividend on agencies.
ACT Labor senator Kate Lundy said on Friday modelling released by the main public sector union, the CPSU, showed the impact of Tony Abbott's proposed cuts to the public service.
''Tony Abbott and the Coalition will cut Canberra to the bone and our region will suffer,'' she said in a statement.
''In 1996, the Howard government said they would cut 2500 jobs from the public service, but it blew out to 30,000 jobs cuts and hurt Canberrans.''
ACT Greens Senate candidate Simon Sheikh is calling on Canberra voters to change their past voting pattern of electing a senator from each of the Labor and Liberal parties.
''If the Liberals' candidate Zed Seselja wins here, Tony Abbott and his conservative allies could gain total control in the Senate,'' Mr Sheikh said in a flier to be distributed to 25,000 Canberra homes on Monday
''If the Liberals win, Canberra loses … Last election the Liberals only got above the quota they needed to win here in Canberra by just 38 votes.''
The Greens' leaflet contains a letter from ''Pat'' who says he did not renew his Liberal Party membership because of the dumping of Mr Humphries.
''I find it hard to reward Zed for backstabbing Gary, the man who helped him into politics,'' Pat wrote.
The man, who spoke to Fairfax Media, said he was a small business owner, economist, community campaigner and former public servant.
The Labor Party launched its ACT campaign last Monday and the Greens previously launched their campaign for the territory.
The Labor and Liberal parties have both put the Rise Up Australia party above the other side of politics on their how-to-vote cards for the ACT.
Mr Abbott will launch his campaign on Sunday and Kevin Rudd will have his formal launch the following Sunday, just one week before polling day, with both events being staged in Brisbane.