Greens Leader Shane Rattenbury has admitted for the first time that the Chief Minister’s job was on the table in talks between the minor party and the Liberals on how they could share power in a coalition ACT government.
Mr Rattenbury also told ABC Radio what common policy areas there might be and which ones would be quarantined.
Tuesday morning’s interview followed party statements that would not explicitly acknowledge this aspect of the talks and a previous radio spot in which Mr Rattenbury played down his interactions with the Liberals, saying journalists were getting carried away.
He said a whole range of tactics had been discussed, everything from passing motions in the Legislative Assembly through to a possible change of government.
Asked whether that included the Chief Minister’s job, Mr Rattenbury said: “That was on the table.”
I can’t see a Greens/Liberal government actually working on the very slim chance that it would ever occur, but it’d certainly be a switch up for the ACT.
I can see it working, but only if a certain subset of both parties make up the overwhelming majority of that party’s seats. The old “wet” liberals, who have mostly disappeared from federal politics thanks to the teals and the 2022 Greens, and Greens who might be hangovers who joined the party a while ago but are more of a natural fit with the teals.
You’re certainly not going to get a coalition between a Dutton style Liberal Party and a Sriranganathan Greens.
I mean. They could do it, but would either of them survive a single term pissing off their own voter base that much?
Probably not, I think Labor would be back with an actual majority after any attempt at this. I think the Greens would lose more though than the Liberals, both in votes from annoyed members and the power they have under the status quo re. forming a majority.
