ACT Labor and the Greens are fighting. But why?

Standing a few kilometres north of Parliament House, the frontline of Australia's decade-long climate wars, the pair detailed an ambitious, yet coherent and seemingly navigable, roadmap to reach zero net emissions before the middle of the 21st Century.

At the centre of the new climate change strategy was a clearly stated ambition to phase out the use of natural gas - a fossil fuel - by 2045.

Barr and Rattenbury held up the plan as proof positive of the ACT's nation and world-leading climate fighting credentials. When Liberal leader Alistair Coe warned that switching off gas would hit the hip pockets of struggling families, Barr and Rattenbury accused their opponent of scare-mongering.

One year and two weeks on, Barr and Rattenbury are again fighting about phasing out gas in the ACT. Only this time, their verbal attacks are directed not at Coe, but at each other.

The Greens' announcement this week that it wanted to accelerate the transition from natural gas lit a fire underneath the usually friendly cabinet colleagues.

Barr said Labor couldn't support a "crazy Greens proposal" which saw households forced to turn off gas appliances before they were ready to make the switch to electric. Labor wouldn't be "gas-shaming people", Barr said.

A fired-up Rattenbury hit back, saying ACT Labor appeared to be "shying away" from real and urgent action on climate action.

That accusation seemed hollow, given Labor's record.

Barr's description of the Greens' proposal as "crazy" hardly rang true either, given all Rattenbury was proposing was to bring forward the gas ban to 2040, and cease new gas connections from next year. There was no suggestion whatsoever that the Greens were about to start marching around town ripping out gas appliances from unsuspecting households.

It does beg the question: what all the fuss was about?

The answer is, of course, politics.

A little over two weeks out from polling day, Labor and the Greens are going through a separation. A political divorce, if you will.

Supporters of the Labor-Greens coalition take a deep breathe. The split is not permanent. Rather it's the same very deliberate and very temporary decoupling that occurs whenever an election is on the horizon.

As polling opens, Labor and the Greens are trying to differentiate themselves from the other as they jostle for the attention of Canberra's left-leaning voters.

It's not as simple an exercise as it might be in other jurisdictions, so intertwined Labor and the Greens have become in the eyes of the ACT electorate in the past decade.

Both parties benefit from their association with the other. Labor gets the numbers it needs to form government, and in return the Greens get a seat at the cabinet table and the swag of ministerial portfolios and political power that comes with it.

But while the political marriage might reap benefits inside the Legislative Assembly, it can at times frustrate sections of the rank-and-file membership, or "the base", of both parties.

Rattenbury's position means the ACT Greens have a leader who is party to a government with ties to the gaming industry and which spends tens of millions of dollars each year on roads projects.

For Labor's traditional working-class voters, such as those who might enjoy putting a few dollars in the machines at their local Labor Club, there is likely to be some unease (or worse) about the creeping influence of the Greens.

Rattenbury and Barr's comments on the gas plan serve as an opportunity to reassure their respective bases that they haven't been forgotten.

If Barr's seemingly pro-gas comments on Tuesday prompted some alarm among left-leaning Labor voters, his promise on Wednesday to deliver one of Australia's biggest battery storage systems if re-elected would have gone some way to quelling their anxiety.

Of course, these Labor-Greens break-ups never last.

The Greens have ruled out forming a coalition with the Canberra Liberals, meaning that unless Alistair Coe wins a majority of seats on October 17 then it's likely Rattenbury will again be in a position to negotiate a power-sharing agreement with Barr.

It's through that agreement that we'll see how far Labor and the Greens are willing to compromise on critical policies, such as a timeframe for phasing out gas. The lure of political power has a funny knack of diluting one's convictions.

So, as voting continues, voters should be wary of reading too much into this Labor-Greens pseudo-feud.

It's mostly hot air.