"It's one of many broken promises by the government. They said there would be 12,000 job losses. When we said we expected more, they said we were exaggerating."

While the effects of these job cuts may be hard to sell nationally, Leigh argues that good public services are an integral part of a decent society affecting everyone. "Australians don't want to be spending an hour on hold to Centrelink, they want to make sure our custom officers are there to give them a smooth arrival when they come into Sydney airport, they expect a Treasury as good as the one that saved Australia from recession in 2008-09."

But he says the government could support jobs outside the public service through infrastructure projects, citing the Majura Parkway funded under Labor as an example of something that would be "unimaginable" under a Coalition government.

Housing affordability was another national issue that resonated with Canberrans in his electorate, especially among young people struggling with the ACT's expensive property market and cold winters.

"I've had young couples come up to me in Gungahlin working medium-wage jobs just tearing their hair out about how they can afford to raise a family and get a mortgage when our house prices are going up and up. We've got the lowest home ownership since the 1950s and yet we've got a tax system skewed towards property speculators and away from first home buyers."

He says the Labor government's national rental affordability scheme added significantly to the housing stock in Canberra with "inspirational social housing projects in Gungahlin". "Yet Malcolm Turnbull prefers to run scare campaigns against Labor than to work together in the national interest to reform negative gearing so it works for everyone."

As a local member, Leigh says he aims to be as accessible as possible and finds examples of people affected by policy in his own electorate. "When I first got the job, I naively thought you engaged with your electorate to help them. But the more of it I did, the more I realised you did it to help you. You can't talk at a level about policy that's removed from the experiences of the people you have the privilege to represent."

The recent redistribution was thought to have moved some of the safest Labor areas in Fenner into the neighbouring seat of Canberra, but Leigh says he hasn't given his chances of re-election much thought.

"I feel like I should pinch myself each morning at the chance to represent people in the ACT, who are incredibly hardworking, deeply engaged with politics, but also with a powerful sense of generosity.

"I always feel that if I stand up in Parliament to talk about global poverty or racial discrimination ... about challenges of social justice then my community has my back. They would want me to raise not just their hip-pocket issues but also issues of national identity and disadvantage."