Chief Minister Andrew Barr is a man not shy of taking pot shots at his political opponents. So for a leader completely sidelined by NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, he's done a remarkable job of keeping his comments diplomatic.

This restraint was most likely born out of necessity. The ACT didn't have any bargaining chips to play and needed to keep NSW onside to have any chance of reaching a deal.

But on the inside, he surely must have been seething.

While dozens of his constituents were stuck in Victoria because of a snap decision made by NSW without consultation or warning, the state's health authorities seemed to be barely taking his calls.

Despite pitching a pretty watertight plan to the NSW government to get trapped residents home - offering the services of ACT police - Berejiklian for days refused to greenlight the proposal.

NSW Health reportedly had no issues with the plan, and the ACT thought it had reached an agreement by Saturday to have police escort carloads of Canberrans.

But the Premier put a pin in it. Barr had to get on the phone to Berejiklian just to get the conversation started again.

The agreement reached on Wednesday does not appear to be a strategic master plan. Canberrans are simply getting in their cars, crossing the border, making no stops and checking in with ACT authorities when they arrive. How it took almost six days to come up with this proposal beggars belief.

Clearly for NSW, the ACT is so far down the pecking order it has to wave its arms in the air just to get a response.

For a while, it seemed the states were working together with a new spirit of co-operation thanks to the new national cabinet. But for NSW and the ACT at least, the honeymoon is certainly over.

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Being a small fish in a big pond must be tough work at the best of times. There's no shortage of federal and state politicians happy to put the ACT down and even question its existence. It would not have been lost on some Canberrans that Prime Minister Scott Morrison wouldn't even refer to the ACT government at a press conference on Monday - instead it was the "ACT administration".

While Barr has been careful to not upset NSW, refusing the get in a "public slanging match" and concede he's been snubbed, Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith couldn't resist taking a jab at her counterparts across the border.

When put to her on Twitter it was ridiculous she and Barr were being ignored by the NSW government, she said: "I know, right!".

With the ACT an island within NSW, the state has an obligation to at least take territory's calls. Berejiklian's lack of regard for the situation was clear when her adviser didn't even bother to acknowledge questions posed by ACT media on Monday.

Her only comments, before a solution was finally announced on Wednesday, came at a press conference earlier in the week. She was unapologetic, to say the least.

The Premier's concerns seemed to make little sense. Surely travelling to Melbourne, jumping on a plane full of NSW residents to Sydney, and quarantining in the city, would put Sydneysiders at more risk than a possible toilet break on the side of the Hume Highway.

The ACT is no doubt a lightweight on the national stage, but by ignoring the territory's leaders, NSW is also treating the territory's 400,000-plus residents with contempt.