It could be argued, even if the remaining count goes their way and the Greens pick up six of the 25 assembly seats, that they were in just as strong a position after the 2008 election, when they held four of the then 17 seats.

In both scenarios, the Green share of the chamber would be roughly one quarter - a powerful minority indeed.

At the time of writing, however, the party can claim four seats as definitely won, representing 16 per cent of the available assembly votes.

It is also interesting to note that in the wake of their 2008 success, the Greens took two weeks to decide to support a minority Labor government headed by Jon Stanhope, who had made history in 2004 when he formed the ACT's first majority government.

Also of interest is the fact the Green's fortuitously gotten gains of 2008, acquired on the back of a period of political turmoil which had seen one Liberal MLA move to the cross-bench after being expelled from his party, proved to be ephemeral.

They lost three of the four seats in 2012, leaving Shane Rattenbury the last Green standing.

Mr Rattenbury then played his hand well, securing a formal coalition agreement which guaranteed him a place in the cabinet. He is neither new at this game or slow on the uptake. This is not his first rodeo.

That is why it is difficult to understand the hard line adopted by Mr Barr after an election in which he may yet lose just as many seats as the Liberals, and may soon be on the hunt for a new Attorney General.

To pre-emptively announce the notion of having a Green - presumably Mr Rattenbury - as his deputy was out of the question seemed counter-intuitive given Mr Barr's only hope of forming a government relies on the support of the minor party.

The prospective chief minister is on firmer ground when he says it is unlikely any of the newly elected Greens could expect to be catapulted into a ministerial position. Fair enough. One has to learn to walk before one can run.

That said, the future of government in the ACT currently rests in the hands of the rank and file members of the Greens.

These are the people who will make the final decision on whether or not they would support their MLAs forming a coalition with Labor, or if they want them to be on the crossbench.

Given he has no direct control over that decision making process, which doesn't even kick off until next week, surely Mr Barr should be wary about sending negative signals to the people who will be making judgments about what the next territory assembly will look like.

His remarks were also a rebuke to the significant number of Canberrans who voted for the Greens.

While Mr Barr might think this is a case of "starting as you mean to go on", others are more likely to see his stance as arrogant.

One can only assume he is, at least in part, motivated by the knowledge that the rise in the Green vote is even more of an existential threat to Labor than it is to the Liberals.

Both parties look for votes in the same places and, as in 2008, Canberrans have demonstrated that if they are not happy with Labor they are more than willing to throw their support behind the minority left-wing party.

These could be a very interesting four years.