Sole surviving ACT Greens MLA Shane Rattenbury emerged from the ruins of his party's near electoral wipeout last month with real power; and today he showed that he has learned to use it.
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The former Greenpeace activist will now be a minister, but not one bound by cabinet solidarity, free to vote in the Assembly against the government he props up.
He has negotiated an agreement that reads like a Greens wish list, he will have more resources at his disposal than his cabinet colleagues and he is even free to publicly criticise the Gallagher government if he wishes.
Rattenbury felt confident enough to declare that he wanted the ACT to have Australia's "most progressive and Green government."
He can also put his name on the big-ticket policy items like light rail for Canberra, a clean-up of Lake Burley Griffin and full marriage equality, while using the leeway he has negotiated to try to stay away from anything too damaging.
It is a deal that avoids some of the political problems that were predicted for the Green, that he would be seen as an appendage to Labor, the party's de facto left wing.
But the agreement, and Rattenbury's success at the negotiating table, could cause his new partners, Chief Minister Katy Gallagher and her deputy Andrew Barr some serious headaches.
They now run the risk of being seen by voters, and attacked by Zed Seselja's Canberra Liberals, more than ever before as the Labor dog being wagged by the Greens tail, a look regarded as a political poison.
To say nothing of the prospect of having to fight an election in four years with light rail work causing major disruption to one of Canberra's main thoroughfares, Northbourne Avenue.
The offer of the Speakers' chair to Liberals, a Greens idea, is clever.
The prestigious job can be taken away through a vote of no confidence, with Labor and Greens controlling the numbers, and may act as check on some of the worst of the acrimony that has been directed at Rattenbury from the opposition benches during the past four years.
The Liberals will be tough holding this new alliance to account though, testing for any weaknesses in the marriage of convenience.
There will be keen interest, even beyond the territory's borders, in where or when the cracks appear.
