To be contested just over eight months from now, on October 17, the poll will determine whether or not Labor is returned, albeit in coalition with the Greens, for a record sixth term.

If it does win in the ACT, Labor will have clocked up almost a quarter of a century in office before it has to face the people again.

That will be one year longer than the Federal Liberal government elected under Menzies in 1949 and six years less than the conservative government which ruled Queensland from 1957 to 1987.

While incumbency has prodigious advantages it also carries significant drawbacks. These grow in size the longer a government is in office.

The Barr government has nobody to blame but itself for its difficulties in delivering satisfactory medical, transport, housing, custodial, educational and social services at a cost comparable to other jurisdictions.

It also has nobody else to blame for the well documented land shortage or hikes in charges on property owners. Labor and the Greens must also take responsibility for the shortage of affordable "social housing" contributing to homelessness and social disadvantage.

While nobody can say if a Liberal government would have handled things any better, or even differently, there is no escaping that these things happened on Labor's watch; or that Andrew Barr has been the chief minister for more than half a decade.

This is the record Canberrans will be reviewing when Mr Barr, as he did on Tuesday, urges voters to look to the future, saying "now is not the time to send our city backward".

He has opened the batting with a pledge to pursue an infrastructure push to deliver "hospitals, healthcare centres, schools, social infrastructure and transport network(s)" for the next decade.

Voters will be asking why so much still needs to be done and how come the new hospital facilities promised in 2016 campaign are still in the pipeline.

Yes, the government has delivered light rail stage one in a timely, and apparently even cost-effective, manner. And yes, it has also delivered some much needed road projects. But it has also been slammed frequently, and not without justification, for community consultation fails.

Light rail stage two, a key element in the 2016 election campaign, remains highly problematic and the changes to bus timetables have done the government no favours.

All of that said, the performance of the Chief Minister and the ESA during the bushfire crisis was widely praised.

The government's biggest asset right now is that while there appears to be a substantial pool of disaffected voters who would welcome an alternative government, there aren't many options. The ACT Liberals are starting well behind and have done little or nothing over the past four years to suggest they are ready to seize the reins.

Alistair Coe's first challenge is to convince an always Labor-leaning electorate that Canberra's conservatives have what it takes to run the ACT after so long in opposition.

They won't be able to do that until they are able to enunciate a clear vision of what they want Canberra to be a decade from now.

Canberra has some of the best educated, and best informed, voters in the country. Many have direct experience of government at the highest levels.

They will be looking for more detail from Andrew Barr and some clear vision from Alistair Coe before they begin to make up their minds.