''Kevin Rudd's a girl,'' dad Mark said. ''He tries to be a bloke but he's not. Tony Abbott's a blokey bloke.''

The twist comes when you find out Mark and wife Jo will vote Labor at the election, despite the observation about the Prime Minister's masculinity. ''I like Abbott, I wish he was in the Labor Party,'' said Mr McNamara, a labourer.

If history repeats itself, the McNamaras and their neighbours in the Eden-Monaro are about to decide which side wins government.

Since 1972 the party that has won the seat has taken the election.

From the suburbs to the sea, stretching from Queanbeyan in the north to Eden on the most southern edge of NSW, is a 30,000-square-kilometre seat of farms, snowfields and beaches and within the bellwether seat is another, smaller microcosm: Queanbeyan.

Labor and Liberal were neck and neck at most booths in the electorate in 2010 and 2007, but Labor MP Mike Kelly's popularity in Queanbeyan translated into his winning and retaining the seat.

Last election, Dr Kelly won the Queanbeyan booths by a two-party preferred margin of 4379 votes and the entire electorate by about 3500 votes. And voters in remote parts of the electorate know Queanbeyan's political importance, too.

As mechanic John Stewart at Delegate, a place with 220 mostly Liberal voters 150 kilometres south of Queanbeyan, said: ''All the little places are dying. Everybody wants to live around the corner from a Woolworths. Mike Kelly doesn't know we exist - he looks after Queanbeyan.''

Dr Kelly has been touting the millions of dollars in funding spread by the government across the seat he holds by a 4.2 per cent margin.

His main competition is Liberal candidate Peter Hendy while the Greens have Catherine Moore and the Palmer United Party, Dean Lynch. Then there is Martin Tye (Stable Population Party), Warren Catton (Christian Democratic Party), Andrew Thaler (independent), Ray Buckley (independent) and Costas Goumas (Citizens Electoral Council).

Back in Queanbeyan, as the kids dress for football and netball, the McNamaras are impressed they have had two phone calls from Dr Kelly's office in the past month. Important issues for them include the ability to save for retirement and the quality of life for their school-aged children, who will probably have to pay $600,000 for a standard home when they grow up.

Mrs McNamara said the Medicare teen dental program introduced in 2008 had been a great help to the family while her husband agrees with the new Rudd asylum-seeker plan.

Not so positive for Labor was cafe owner Ab Guleria, 38, a baker and barista who migrated from India a decade ago who longs for economic stability and will vote Liberal.

He was not concerned by the Liberals' asylum-seeker policy or Tony Abbott's struggling personal popularity. ''When I first came here people didn't like John Howard either,'' he said.

Barber shop owner David Tutalo, 40, said he found the two major parties were similar but would probably vote Liberal.

''People seem to be saving their money at the moment waiting for the election to be over,'' he said.

Reverend Steve Coster from the Uniting Church said the division between rich and poor was growing in Queanbeyan.

''People in their late teens trying to get in the job market can only get insecure, part-time work,'' he said.

''I'm scared of Tony Abbott getting in. I'm from a conservative family but swing more to Labor and the Greens - the Australian Christian Lobby doesn't speak for all of us.''

On September 7, many will be watching Eden-Monaro as it is the best guide to who Australians think is the best bloke for the job.