And the former Labor treasurer says the Canberra Liberals are painting a ''dire scenario'' in their campaign material for this month's election by selectively quoting his review without proper context or qualification.

But Canberra Liberals leader Zed Seselja accused his Labor opponents of ''wheeling out'' Mr Quinlan to defend their policies.

The Liberals have underpinned their bid for power in the October 20 election on a claim that Labor's plans to reform the territory's revenue system will lead to a tripling of household rates and have quoted from Mr Quinlan's review to back their argument.

The review, compiled with the help of ACT Under-Treasurer Megan Smithies and Professor Alan Duncan from the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling, was tabled in the Assembly in May.

When approached by The Canberra Times, Mr Quinlan said he did not want to be drawn into the election debate but was disappointed that the reforms had become such a key part of the campaign after they had been broadly accepted by all sides of politics.

''I'm a little disappointed that taxation reform has become an issue, when it seemed to have been unanimously accepted as necessary by all in the ACT Assembly when the report was tabled,'' Mr Quinlan said.

''I suppose that it was probable that some dire scenario would be drawn from selective extraction of some few words or numbers without appropriate context or qualification.

''But I guess that's politics.''

The Liberals' campaign material reproduces a table from page 148 of Mr Quinlan's review that canvasses a scenario of phasing out stamp duty over a 10-year period, leading to a tripling of the general rates during those years.

But the government says it opted for a 20-year phase-in period detailed in its 2012-13 budget papers to avoid sudden and large rates increases and Mr Quinlan said the review did not commit the government of the day to any of the phase-in scenarios that were canvassed.

''It remains the province of the government, and ultimately the Assembly, as to which recommendations are accepted, how they are implemented, and what time frame(s) will apply,'' he said.

''The report is the product of deliberations of the appointed panel. As the chairman, I am therefore limited in what I could say on behalf of the review panel. The report stands as it was submitted.''

But Mr Seselja stuck to his argument yesterday that the government would replace $350 million in abolished duty revenue by taxing family homes, although he did not say what time frame the changes would cover.

''Andrew Barr is abolishing $350 million in taxes, to be replaced by rates,'' Mr Seselja said. ''Whichever way you look at it, this equals a tripling of residential rates.

''This is a desperate last-ditch attempt by a lazy government, who are wheeling out an ex-Labor treasurer who believes people should be taxed 'till they bleed but not until they die'.''