ACT poll shows voters 'wary of Greens' - The Australian

A BIG swing to the Liberals in the ACT election shows voters in the territory are wary of the Australian Greens, senior Liberal senator Arthur Sinodinos says.

While it's still not clear whether the Liberals or Labor will hold power, neither major party will be able to govern without the support of the remaining Greens MPs.

The parliamentary secretary to Opposition Leader Tony Abbott on Sunday declined to advise the ACT Liberals how to approach the Greens.

"It's up to them what they do," Senator Sinodinos told Network Ten's Meet the Press program.

"It's true in the past they've been pretty wary about joining with the Greens.

"The result on the weekend in Canberra has been a pretty decisive rejection of the Labor-Greens alliance."

There was a 6.4 per cent swing to the Liberals on Saturday, while the Greens suffered a 4.6 per cent swing against and have lost at least two seats.

With about 74 per cent of the vote counted, the Liberals appear to have picked up seven seats, Labor seven seats and the Greens one.

Two seats remain outstanding and could go to either the Liberals or the Greens.

Still, the Liberals' primary vote, at 38 per cent, was its best ever in the ACT.

Senator Sinodinos said ACT Liberal leader Zed Seselja's campaign on living costs had worked well.

"It's our highest primary vote ever in the ACT and in the outer suburbs - parts of Canberra that are more like the rest of Australia - there swings were around 10 per cent," he said.

But Senator Sinodinos said the federal experience of the Greens showed parties needed to be careful.

"In our experience at the federal level, the Greens in their dealings with the Labor party have encouraged the Labor party to break promises and essentially to do things which the majority of their fellow Australians are against," he said.

"I think we've got to be very careful about getting in bed with the Greens."

Counting of votes for the ACT election continues later on Sunday.

Federal Greens leader Christine Milne said the Greens result in the ACT was disappointing.

"But it came off a very high result for us in with 2008," she told ABC television.

"The main lesson out of this campaign has been that a simple negative message does cut through." The centrepiece of the Liberal campaign was the claim that household rates would triple under Labor.

Ms Milne said federal Labor and the Greens would need to look at the impact of the ACT Liberal campaign message, adding the negative theme mirrored "what Tony Abbott has done".

Asked about the fall in ACT Greens vote, Ms Milne said local factors had impacted.

"When you have a lot of other political parties contesting the election, it can fragment the vote," she said, pointing to the single issue Bullet Train for Canberra Party.

But the Greens hasn't given up on winning a seat in the Brindabella electorate, where Amanda Bresnan is fighting it out against the Liberals.

AAP