The ACT government was left hanging by a thread last week, with Labor clinging on to minority rule despite no longer having formal agreements in place to show they can govern in a minority.
While it seems the government will not be imminently toppled, the Greens' decision to walk away from talks to renew its supply-and-confidence agreement raises a series of questions for the second half of the parliamentary term.
Can Labor stay in power? Will the Greens flex their crossbench muscle to shape the remainder of the term to their liking? Will the Liberals seize the chance now presented to them to shape themselves into something that resembles a government-in-waiting in time for the election set for October 2028?
The level of community frustration with the government is palpable. While the most recent polling shows Andrew Barr is still the front runner as Canberrans' preferred chief minister, he faces an electorate growing increasingly frustrated with what they see as the failure of government to get things done and make meaningful changes in their community.
Labor is positioning itself as the party of getting on with what it promised at the election, using the state of the budget - widely agreed to be perilous - as justification for doing little extra or little else.
And this wide agreement on the state of the budget has painted the Greens and Liberals into a difficult corner. They led the charge late last year on calling out the fiscal emergency, and their efforts led to Saul Eslake's examination of the territory's fiscal position.
But it has harmed the parties' credibility when they call for new spending to solve the problems - widely agreed to be prevalent - that face the capital.
However, with the parliamentary term's halfway point about to be crossed, the Liberals ought to seize the opportunity to make legislative interventions, finding avenues of support through the Assembly, to demonstrate they have the mettle to lead the territory.
Labor likes to goad the Liberals over cuts. To have a fighting chance, the Liberals need to stop being coy and start sketching out how they would handle the tough choices. Public servants are being offered voluntary redundancies in the ACT right now. Right now, the Liberals cannot be accused of being the only party with a plan to cut jobs.
The Greens, meanwhile, face a different set of questions and challenges. Long a partner of Labor in government, the party has walked away from cabinet and now a formal agreement with Labor. The party's leader, Jo Clay, said this might even lead to even more engagement with Labor.
The party needs to demonstrate to what end. Ms Clay has so far been a leader in search of a message, laser-focused on issues in her electorate and yet to make a broader claim over the Greens' vision for the broader capital.
The apparent confusion over what Labor was prepared to commit to in the abandoned supply-and-confidence agreement was an early misstep. But Ms Clay can recover by using the new political environment to show what role the Greens intend to take in an Assembly that might no longer be Labor's to lead.
This Assembly has been the least stable in years. A larger and more diverse crossbench is among the possible outcomes of the next election, where voters could well use their trip to the ballot box to voice their displeasure with government-as-usual.
In perilous conditions, Canberrans should now be looking at all representatives to make the case for their causes and methods.
