A new look crossbench threatens to shake up politics in the ACT after Labor managed to cling on to a seventh consecutive term in power.
After vote counting paused on Saturday night, Labor was on track to hang on to its 10 seats in the 25-seat Legislative Assembly.
Along with the three seats held by the Greens, they are once again capable of forming a minority government.
Labor leader Andrew Barr and Greens counterpart Shane Rattenbury will now embark on the familiar process of negotiating a joint governing arrangement.
But although their coalition is set to extend to 23 years, swings against both parties shows voters are increasingly dissatisfied with what the major parties have to offer.
The Liberals managed to add one member to the nine seats they held in the assembly but still saw their vote share fall backwards as well.
Instead, Canberrans voted in not one but two independents – the first elected in the ACT since 1998.
In the south-western electorate of Murrumbidgee, former public servant Fiona Carrick unseated Greens politician Emma Davidson, while Independents for Canberra lead candidate Thomas Emerson ousted deputy Greens leader Rebecca Vassarotti in the seat of Kurrajong.
Mr Emerson, son of former Labor minister Craig Emerson, used to work as a staffer of independent Senator David Pocock and received the backing of the former Wallaby throughout his campaign.
His progressive policies seem to better align with Labor than the Liberals but he was eager to stress his desire to push the government to improve on its failings.
“What I think is clear is that people do want an alternative in there,” he told ABC TV on election night.
“We are hearing from people every day who really want to see more action on the core issues that are relevant to people’s lives: housing, health, education.
“Why is it that the ACT has fallen so far behind in these areas?”
Mr Rattenbury, the Greens leader, clearly saw the election as a wake-up call.
Half of his party’s six representatives lost their seats in a sign voters were unsatisfied with the Greens’ record in holding Labor to account.
“We’re obviously going to need to think about this one and the important part is that we are a really community-based party. We need to sit down and reflect with our members now about what they think this means,” he said.
“We need to recognise that some of these really wicked problems won’t be resolved by just adjusting a little bit. We need to take some bold decisions.”
North of the border in NSW, Climate-200 backed independent Jacqui Scruby resoundingly defeated Liberal Georgia Ryburn in a by-election for the seat of Pittwater on Sydney’s northern beaches.
ABC election analyst Antony Green said the ACT results showed the independent movement was still going strong after the teal wave of the 2022 federal election.
“It will be interesting to see if that flows through to the federal election, so there’s not an end to the independent phenomenon,” he said.
By Jacob Shteyman in Canberra
