"That is complete and utter nonsense. I have always treated this seat as if it was a marginal seat. We've lost Canberra in the past ... but I've always worked and advocated as if it was a marginal seat," she said.

"I'm a very active local member. They [the Liberals] say this all the time, but I do not take this seat for granted. I've learnt that ... you can assume nothing in life and you've got to work hard for everything in life and that's the approach I take to this seat."

Ms Brodtmann said ensuring Canberra received investment in education, protecting Medicare and prioritising the NBN rollout in the ACT would be among her top priorities during her third term in Parliament.

She was also focused on protecting national institutions, preventing public service job cuts and keeping public service agencies in Canberra.

Ms Brodtmann won her third term as the member for Canberra on Saturday night, with 58.3 per cent of the two-party vote and a swing of about 1 per cent towards her.

"I'm feeling delighted and I want to thank the people of Canberra for electing me for a third term. It's a great honour and privilege," she said.

Liberal candidate Jessica Adelan-Langford received 41.7 per cent of the two-party vote, with a -0.8 per cent swing.

There remained on Sunday significant uncertainty about the final results of the federal election and Ms Brodtmann echoed Bill Shorten's comments that patience was needed until the final result was known.

"No one is sure who has finally won and we just need patience and to rely on the AEC count. We don't know who the winner is and I'm not going to speculate on that," she said.

Ms Brodtmann threw her support behind Mr Shorten on Sunday, saying he had been an "extraordinary leader".

"Bill has united Labor, not only has he united Labor... but we've also come up with these policies. We have not been a small target opposition, we've been quite clear on our vision for the country and the plans and the policies that we have to achieve that vision," she said.

Ms Brodtmann was not surprised by the swings towards Labor in the ACT and said voters had not forgotten about the "appalling" 2014 budget that hit Canberra so hard.

"We've seen public service jobs cut, we've seen talk of agencies being moved out of the nation's capital, we've seen a complete disdain and contempt for the public service," she said.

"Coalition governments have form on this. We saw what happened in 1996 when they abolished 30,000 public servants nationally, 15,000 here in Canberra. This time we've seen a similar attack on the public service and also this complete contempt of the nation's capital.

"I did a huge amount of door knocking, phone calling, mobile offices out in the community and Canberrans were very concerned about public service job cuts, secondly about the national institutions and most importantly the need to invest in education ... and the need to protect universal health care."