Newly confirmed ACT Greens leader Jo Clay says her party will not put up with poor performance from the government as her members now consider whether to strike a new supply-and-confidence agreement with Labor.
Ms Clay said whether the Greens came to a new written agreement would be decided between the party's membership, the community and Labor.
"I think we are definitely in a phase when we need to be holding the government to account for its performance. It has not been delivering the services that Canberrans need and expect and we have seen poor performance for a number of years now," Ms Clay said in her first press conference since winning about 60 per cent support in a member ballot for the leadership.
Andrew Braddock will serve as the party's deputy leader, while former deputy leader Rebecca Vassarotti was defeated in the leadership ballot.
Ms Clay said she was prepared to debate the budget line by line in the Legislative Assembly if no supply deal was reached before the ACT's parliament reconvenes in mid-September.
"But I think we're still at an early phase to decide whether we will have a supply-and-confidence agreement with the Labor Party or not," she said.
Ms Clay revealed she had written to Mr Barr after former Greens leader Shane Rattenbury retired to confirm the Greens would honour the supply-and-confidence agreement while the Greens settled who would lead the party permanently.
The ACT Greens would also not be looking for a formal governing arrangement with the Canberra Liberals, Ms Clay said.
"It's not the right time for that kind of arrangement. We will be working with everybody in parliament as I always have," Ms Clay said.
The ACT Greens and Canberra Liberals had extensively canvassed forming government together in secretive talks held over summer that were abandoned after becoming public.
Ms Clay said the Greens' support for a censure motion in Deputy Chief Minister Yvette Berry in the last Assembly sitting week showed the party would not put up with poor performance from the government.
"The Greens will be expecting better on behalf of our community," she said.
Chief Minister Andrew Barr, who congratulated Ms Clay on her win, on Tuesday said Labor wanted to secure support for the passage of its budget and urged the importance of a sensible approach to fiscal responsibility.
"The exact content, how prescriptive such an agreement is, is of course up for further discussion. There's been a lot of progress on the agreement that was signed in 2024, so clearly there will be updates to that," Mr Barr said.
"At this point what we would want is a degree of certainty that the annual budget is going to pass each year and some indication of where there is a shared agenda where we could jointly pursue."
Ms Clay said: "We have a lot more reform that we need to bring in. What we will be doing is focusing very carefully on core issues, environmental and climate protection and adaptation and day-to-day cost of living issues, housing and cost of living and affordability and basic city services for people."
Mr Barr said it was important for the progressive side of politics to pull together behind fundamental principles, including multiculturalism and social inclusion.
"We are seeing some quite disturbing trends around the rest of Australia and the Western world at the moment, and some of these things that many progressives have taken for granted are being seriously questioned and pushed back against by rising populist forces on the right of politics," he said.
Ms Clay said she was worried about the rise of the far right, the impact of racism and how the emergence of One Nation, though she did not name the party, would change Australia's political culture.
"But I think the really important thing at the moment is we need to make change that helps people's lives and we need to listen to what they're saying. That is where these disgruntled different options and different opinions are coming from," she said.
