And Mr Seselja says that his party remains the underdog in this month's territory election, that there is more to his campaign than rates and that there is still no place for Tony Abbott in the local Liberals' bid for power.

In a wide-ranging interview with The Canberra Times, Mr Seselja talked about the lessons from his defeat in 2008 and the attitude of his federal colleagues to public sector jobs.

The opposition leader, who has been accused by unions of planning to slash local public sector jobs, said that both the Queensland and NSW premiers were wrong in axing large numbers of workers.

''I certainly don't agree with those decisions,'' Mr Seselja said.

''It's up to those governments to answer for why they're doing it but I don't agree with them and it's not the approach I'd take.''

Mr Seselja said threats by his federal Liberal colleagues to cut thousands of Commonwealth jobs in the capital were not helpful but accused the Gillard government of dishonesty in its approach to employment levels in the service.

''I certainly think it's unhelpful, the attitude that both federal parties have to the public service at the moment,'' he said. ''Currently Labor is cutting jobs and they're pretending that they're not federally, and the Liberal party is talking about cutting jobs. I think the Canberra bashing should stop, it's not helpful for anyone, it's not helpful for confidence.

''If you look at house prices at the moment, the median house price has gone down compared to the rest of the country and I suspect that has something to do with confidence at the moment.''

Mr Seselja conceded that the claim that Labor and the Greens would triple rates for householders was an important part of his campaign, but said his party also had a positive message for voters.

''In terms of other aspects of the campaign, I think we have been very positively talking about our message on better local services,'' he said.

''If you go out into the community, if you go to Tuggeranong, if you go to Belconnen, if you go to Gungahlin, people are hearing that message and they're responding to it.

''They see that this is a fundamental of a local government, things that the government rejects out of hand, like green bins, like a pool for Lanyon. These are good things and these are things that a local government should be doing, and I think that's a very important part of our campaign.''

Mr Seselja believed his party was the underdog in a tight election race that was yet to be won or lost.

''I think that most commentators would have us as the underdogs and I think that's correct,'' he said. ''I think it's a close election though and I think the next couple of weeks will decide it and it could go either way.''