"The main lesson out of this campaign has been that a simple negative message does cut through" ... Australian Greens ledaer Christine Milne.

"The main lesson out of this campaign has been that a simple negative message does cut through" ... Australian Greens leader Christine Milne. Photo: Andrew Meares



TONY ABBOTT says the Greens should form a coalition government with the Liberal Party in the ACT after the Liberals received a large swing at Saturday's election but are set to fall one seat short of being able to govern in their own right.


He says the election contained a lesson for federal Labor over its carbon price with the swing towards the ACT Liberals attributed to an unmandated increase in rates imposed by the ACT Labor government.


The Greens were the biggest loser and look likely to have their seats reduced from four to two in the 17-member ACT Legislative Assembly.


The result is the latest in a series of poor electoral showings for the Greens, including the Queensland state election in March, the Melbourne state byelection in July, and the recent council elections in Sydney.


The federal Greens leader, Christine Milne, acknowledged the result was disappointing but she said the party was coming off a high result in the 2004 ACT election.


She, too, blamed the Liberals' campaign against the rate rises, saying this mirrored ''what Tony Abbott has done''.


''The main lesson out of this campaign has been that a simple negative message does cut through,'' she said.


Labor, which has governed in the ACT in coalition with the Greens for the past four years, held its seven seats with a 1.7 percentage point swing towards it.


But the Liberals, thanks to a 6.4 percentage point swing, look set to win two extra seats for a tally of eight.


With counting yet to be finalised, neither the Labor leader, Katy Gallagher, nor the Liberal leader, Zed Seselja, has claimed victory, and both need the Greens to form government.


Before the election, Mr Seselja said he was open to negotiating a coalition government with the Greens but he said there would be no Greens in his ministry.


He said on election night the result was ''a rejection of the Labor-Greens alliance''.