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Former ACT Liberal senator and chief minister Gary Humphries has accused the party's Canberra branch moving too far to the right and losing its way.

Mr Humphries says the Canberra Liberals face years in the political wilderness if they continue to act as foot-soldiers for Prime Minister Tony Abbott's Coalition Government.

Mr Humphries says the debate over same-sex marriage is an example of how the Liberals are out of touch with the community.

He says there is general support for same-sex marriage in Canberra and even among some Liberal MLAs.

"But when the recent debate was held about the ACT Government's legislation, which admittedly was a stunt, those voices were stilled inside the Liberal Party and effectively the sense of the Liberal Party representing a broad church of opinion on issues like that, was denied," he said.

Mr Humphries says the Canberra Liberals need to make a clear distinction between federal and Territory politics.

Since ACT self-government was introduced 25 years ago, the Liberals have won government twice in 1995 and 1998.

"The things that we did in those years to win was to make very clear to the people of the ACT that we were a different brand of Liberalism, to the kind that they were seeing at the federal level," he said.

"I think one of the reasons in 2012 that we failed again after more than a decade of Labor Government, was that we have become less interested in projecting a sense of us being for and about Canberra.

"We are more inclined to want to put our hand up and support what the Federal Liberals are doing, to the detriment of our image in Canberra."

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Humphries: Canberra Liberals have lost touch with community