The Legislative Assembly sits for three days this week and the Budget Review will be released. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
The first sitting week of the Legislative Assembly could be a fractious affair.
The usual summer languor was broken by the bombshell news that the hitherto implacable enemies were considering what some members on both sides would consider the unthinkable — a Greens-Liberal coalition government to replace a Labor government they thought was rotten to the core.
But being a small town and with little else apart from heatwaves, beach drownings and bushfires to occupy the minds of journalists, word got out.
Honest Mark Parton denied it all, only to have to backpedal when the Greens admitted the two parties were talking, although there was no deal.
The backgrounding came from all sides and some of the information seemed a bit out there — the spectre of a Zed revival and a Shane Rattenbury so consumed by ambition to be the ACT’s first Greens Chief Minister that he would blow up his own party.
Parton last week had a cheap video shot at journalists over some of the reporting, but the Liberals didn’t help their cause by not responding to direct questions about some of the claims.
But it all came into the open after a Greens members’ meeting last Thursday night and a Rattenbury press conference the next day to clear the air.
Sorry not to let you know, he told members, but the party needs options if it can no longer support Labor.
And there is no love lost between the two former coalition partners. Labor governs at the pleasure of the Greens, who are livid about how it treats the supply and confidence agreement entered into after the 2024 election.
Rattenbury says diplomatically that Labor has not entered into the spirit of the agreement, but others might say the government is riding roughshod as usual over the Greens.
A deteriorating budget, looming inquiry results and what they see as Labor’s growing indifference to the community have pushed the Greens MLAs to question whether they can continue sticking with Barr’s team.
The membership has probably put the kybosh on any deal, but what if extraordinary circumstances emerged that demand a new approach?
That’s why Rattenbury does not want to be caught without a hand to play, so he chooses his words carefully when talking about whether a deal could be done.
The Assembly sits Tuesday to Thursday this week and the Budget Review will be released, with Labor touting an improved position, helped along by the new hospitals deal with the Commonwealth.
But both the Greens and Liberals argue the last budget did little to arrest the situation and the underlying problems remain.
It should be an opportunity for both Rattenbury and Parton to interrogate the government on the budget, as well as team up on other issues to either hold the government to account or pressure it to take action.
The extent to which the revelations of the high-level talks on a Greens-Liberal coalition have the government’s attention should also be apparent.
The Greens certainly believe Labor has been spooked.
With all kinds of alliances possible in this Assembly and attitudes hardening, governing from a minority will become even tougher for Labor.
This week could reveal just how tough, and, really, nothing should be ruled out for the rest of the term.
