A false step from ACT Labor is more likely to strand the minority ACT government on a political landmine after the Greens walked away from talks to strike a new supply deal, the Opposition Leader says.
Mark Parton said it was game on from here after the Greens confirmed they could not reach agreement with Labor, leaving the long-term governing party without a formal deal with the Greens for the first time since 2008.
"I think it's abundantly clear by how the first two years of the term has played out, by the fact that there's been three censure motions, that the deputy chief minister has resigned, that if this government makes a false step they will tread on a landmine and it could potentially get explosive," Mr Parton said.
"It's been explosive in that chamber thus far and I think there's more landmines in the ground now."
Mr Parton said the government was in chaos. "You are seeing a government crumble. And it's going to be a very interesting final two years of this term, should we get that far," he said.
Greens leader Jo Clay said it was clear Labor did not want to commit to delivering clear on-the-ground services and set clear accountability measures, but said the crossbench party was not interested in forming government with anyone else.
"We were having really positive conversations with the Labor government. What we needed, and we were really clear about this from the start ... [were] measurable commitments that the Labor government could be held to account on.They needed implementation at times by which implementation would happen," Ms Clay said.
"All of the things we've asked for are government policy. We just asked the Labor government to state when they would do it by and what they would do. So it was that lack of accountability that is what fell through. We weren't able to reach agreement with the Labor government that they would commit to."
ACT Labor rejected that characterisation and Chief Minister Andrew Barr said it was a little frustrating the talks with the Greens had fallen over after "days and days and days of work over many months" had been invested in landing a new deal.
"If you believe the opinion polls, both locally and federally, then there will be One Nation representatives in the ACT Assembly after the next election. That will principally come at the expense of the Liberal Party, and so there will be a different dynamic," Mr Barr said.
"I think there might be a sharper focus then on the progressive parties working together, but in this parliament clearly there are a number of different pathways to get to 13."
Labor holds 10 seats in the Legislative Assembly and needs support from three other MLAs to command a majority. The Greens hold four seats.
The Governor-General has the power to dissolve the Legislative Assembly if she believes it "is incapable of effectively performing its functions" or is "conducting its affairs in a grossly improper manner". A dissolution forces an early election.
But Mr Barr said there was no indication on Wednesday the Assembly would descend into dysfunction.
"I think there's reasonable grounds to expect that where there is a degree of ideological alignment and a degree of policy alignment for more than three quarters of issues, that that's the basis for as much certainty as you're probably going to get in politics," he said.
"The Assembly is operating a lot more like the Australian Senate these days. And so, you see, we have the greatest interest in passing legislation, we're the government, so we need to find different dancing partners to do that on different issues."
The Greens said they would pass this year's budget, due to be debated this month, and work with the government issue by issue.
