ACT Greens Minister Shane Rattenbury has refuted claims he left last Friday's COAG meeting during critical energy discussions to do a doorstop with his federal party colleagues.
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Mr Rattenbury has been an outspoken critic of the proposed National Energy Guarantee, saying the overall emissions target was weak and there were unresolved questions around how offsets could be used.
But Victorian Labor Energy Minister Lily D'Ambrosio took to Twitter to lash Mr Rattenbury for "going missing during 40 minutes of COAG and not once opposing the NEG when you were in the room".
The tweet was seized on by the Canberra Liberals, with leader Alistair Coe calling on Mr Rattenbury to explain his absence.
"While many Canberrans are struggling with soaring energy prices, Mr Rattenbury is far more interested in attending rallies with the Federal Greens," Mr Coe said.
"Rather than fighting for the best deal for ACT residents, Shane Rattenbury was off grandstanding with his political mates.
"Mr Rattenbury must explain why he thought it was appropriate to leave the COAG table and leave the ACT unrepresented on such an important matter."
However, Mr Rattenbury said he only left the room briefly during discussions that were not relevant to the ACT.
"The assertions in Minister D'Ambrosio's tweet are simply wrong. I was in the room for the entire NEG discussion, and outlined in clear terms the ACT concerns with the current design," Mr Rattenbury said.
"I was out of the room for about 20 minutes for another commitment during the Resources Council section of the meeting - but the ACT is not a member of the Resources Council as we don't have mining in the ACT."
While a COAG agenda obtained by Fairfax Media shows the Resources Council discussion was scheduled to run from 11.30am to 11.50am, a spokeswoman for Mr Rattenbury said the meeting was running late and began just after 12pm.
If the meeting had been running on time, it would have wrapped up by midday.
A Facebook Live on Mr Rattenbury's Facebook page shows Mr Rattenbury answering questions from the media with federal Greens leader Richard Di Natale and deputy leader Adam Bandt at 12.11pm.
Mr Rattenbury said on Friday state and territory energy ministers had agreed to continue negotiations about the NEG up until their next meeting in August.
He said he made a "strong input" into the meeting about the "significant outstanding questions" surrounding the energy agreement and that he could not support it in its current form.
