That rule applies around the country for safe seats on both sides of the political divide.

The outcome in seats with a huge margin is predictable or, if you prefer the glass-half-empty approach, voters are effectively disenfranchised.

All this applies in double doses in the ACT, where the two lower house seats are the most populous in the country and among Labor's safest.

Nothing new there - in nearby Riverina, which covers Wagga Wagga, Gundagai and Tumut, voters in this very safe National seat similarly have no say in the outcome.

The formula for dividing the nation's voters into electorates briefly gave the ACT three seats in the 1990s, before reverting to two - Fraser and Canberra.

Almost 140,000 voters in Civic, Belconnen and Gungahlin are corralled into the electorate of Fraser, named after Labor MP Jim Fraser, who represented the ACT when the territory was a single federal electorate.

The boundaries drawn by the Australian Electoral Commission mean Canberra's northern sprawl is the site of Australia's most populous electorate.

Fraser is also the setting for the battle between two candidates with phonetically similar names.

Could that be some sort of metaphor for the policies of the main parties sounding similar on some issues? Asylum seekers comes to mind, where only a wafer appears to divide the ''toughness'' of the major parties in their haste to dump the boat people elsewhere.

In Fraser, the incumbent is Andrew Leigh, an economist who worked the preselection numbers to beat the factional bosses. His main opponent is Liberal candidate Elizabeth Lee.

The Leigh versus Lee contest won't rate a mention outside Canberra, but why is Lee taking on Leigh when she can't win?

The Canberra Times posed a series of questions to both candidates this week.

LEIGH: I didn't meet anyone in my door knock in Amaroo who thought the real problem with the national broadband network was that it should stop at a cabinet down the street.

You certainly get a lot on health and education, people are concerned about getting more GPs. In education, Canberra is an ideas city so the better schools reforms and the university reforms come up in conversation quite a bit.

LEE: The issues I am getting through quite a lot when I am at shopping centres and door knocking are cost of living, especially from people like business owners who have talked about how difficult it is to have a small business in Canberra.

The second one is in relation to stability of government. A lot of talk that we're getting from people is they are sick of the infighting that they've seen within the Labor Party in the last three years and they want people who can govern and bring forward a strong, secure and stable government and economy.

LEIGH: I don't take anything for granted in an election campaign. I regard being a member of the Federal Parliament as a privilege, never a right, and have been working ever since I was elected in 2010 to earn the privilege of another term.

LEE: The first starting point is we don't know the result, nothing is impossible.

I understand and acknowledge that it is a difficult race but nothing is impossible and just because something is difficult doesn't stop us from giving it a go, a red hot go.

LEIGH: I think Mr Rudd is an extraordinary Labor Prime Minister who is serving the nation's interests.

He's really committed to making sure we get better services for Canberra and is a strong respecter of the public service, certainly unlike Mr Abbott

LEE: That's a matter of obviously my personal preference and I don't speak about preselection processes.

LEIGH: Labor has announced two policies in this area, one is an increase in the efficiency dividend. I would have preferred not to see that, frankly.

My hope is that agencies will be able to find savings outside staffing. The other is a modest reduction in the number of senior management … which is a recognition that that part of the public service has grown five times as fast as the remainder of the public service, creating a potential imbalance in the federal public service

LEE: The public service in Canberra is a dynamic and vibrant public service and we need a dynamic and vibrant public service. The Coalition have set forward a very, very clear target in terms of what we're going to do about cuts in the public service, the Labor government has not. They've fashioned themselves as being champions for the public service and yet we see every day that public service jobs are being lost, so my biggest concern would be the uncertainty.

LEIGH: The Coalition will maintain the efficiency dividend, as I understand it, and will also maintain the targeted savings we've made at senior levels of the public service so that then means that any impact they have on staffing levels will be above anything that happens under Labor. If the '96 election is anything to go by, Canberra's economy could go into a tailspin - increased joblessness, increased bankruptcies, and a reduction in house prices, what happened last time and what I'd expect to happen again. In fact Joe Hockey has even joked that Canberra house prices will fall if the Coalition is elected.

LEE: We've always said that it's 12,000 and across the board. I'm not sure of the exact figures in Canberra but it's been estimated at between 3000 and 4000.

We've always made it clear that it's going to be voluntary redundancies and natural attrition, that's a clear plan that we have made very, very clear to the public. With the Coalition we also have a clear plan to make sure that we build up a strong local economy within the private sector as well, so coupled with that we're making sure we minimise the impact of those job losses in Canberra.

LEIGH: Yes.

LEE: Yes.

LEIGH: The way in which all economists tell us to tackle climate change is by putting a price on carbon pollution, it's economics 101. If you want to reduce emissions then put a modest price on emissions and you will see behaviour changing, we are seeing that already.

LEE: I think that each of us on an individual level can do something about it, we all can and we all should, and that's why the Coalition have a policy to create a 15,000-

strong Green Army which will actually tackle things on the ground and make sure we impress on our young people to take responsibility for their role in ensuring we have a safer, greener, and more sustainable environment for the future.

LEIGH: Yes.

LEE: The party's view is that marriage is between a man and a woman .. it's going to be up to the future party room to make a decision … I'm not against it.

LEIGH: I think it's actually a cruel policy that says that anyone who can get a boat to Christmas Island can apply for asylum … 4 per cent of those who attempt that trip die trying, a higher death rate than soldiers we send to fight in Afghanistan. What we are doing with the refugee resettlement agreement is working with countries in our region to try to make sure we prevent drownings.

LEE: We mustn't forget that first and foremost we're talking about human lives.

What the Coalition have attempted to do in terms of bringing forward their policy is to make sure that people aren't getting on the boats in the first place. There's so much money that's being spent on border protection at the moment that if we were able to stop the boats from coming in the first place, stop the people from getting on the boats in the first place, wouldn't it be an option for a future parliament to be able to look at more humane ways, more streamlined approaches to the whole process.

LEIGH: I think Julia Gillard's legacy will be greatly remembered. She was a reformer in many areas, the carbon price, the mining tax, but also her willingness to stand firm in the face of relentless negativity.

LEE: It's a difficult issue because, ultimately, did she make mistakes? Yes, but at the same time I give her a lot of respect … because no matter what's been said, it is difficult to be the first female and I do, on a personal level, think as a fellow female trying to go into politics, that it is a difficult world to break into and I respect that she has pioneered the way.