In the Legislative Assembly's last adjournment debate for 2021, government members lined up to sing the praises of Canberrans, the public service, constituents, their staff and the bond between Labor and the Greens.

"It has been challenging. Challenging times bring out the best and sometimes the worst in the community. But I feel it is appropriate to finish today by thanking Canberrans for doing the right thing and continuing to support each other," Chief Minister Andrew Barr said, before tabling a long list of thank-yous for Hansard.

But Jeremy Hanson, the opposition whip, was not having any of it. He agreed, jokingly, with the Greens' star performer Jonathan Davis, who interjected in the last debate before Christmas to call him the Grinch.

"I must say, after hearing quite a few self-congratulatory speeches from the socialists opposite, the Labor Party and the Greens, about how wonderful they are and what a fantastic job they have been doing, I found it pretty nauseating, to be honest," Mr Hanson said.

Speaking off the cuff - a last-minute filibuster to pad time so Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith could make it back to the chamber from a radio interview - Mr Hanson rattled off the usual well-rehearsed list of ACT issues: not enough police, high electricity bills, ageing demountable classrooms and, of course, the perennial issue of hospital waiting times.

"Well, Merry Christmas, and congratulations to this government on the longest waiting times across Australia and the longest waiting times that we have seen in the ACT's history," he said on December 2.

Mr Hanson's speech went to the heart of the trouble with politics in the ACT and the trouble with opposition: it's hard to make Canberrans notice until it affects them directly.

Long, unmown grass generates outrage. Potholes generate outrage, as do speeding fines in a new inner-city 40km/h zone. An impending green waste site closure and the spectre of densification haunting Canberra's suburbs make people take notice.

The opposition, led by Elizabeth Lee, did have some wins in 2021. The anti-stealthing law introduced by Ms Lee was an Australian first, adding the non-consensual removal of a condom as a specific reason sexual consent is negated in the Crimes Act.

It was a sound political strategy: identify an issue no one could possibly object to outlawing and bring forth legislation to outlaw it. In the case of stealthing, the act was likely already illegal under existing provisions but this had never been tested in court. Now there's no doubt and the Canberra Liberals can rightly claim credit.

The trick in the coming year for the opposition will be cutting through. Black-letter legal reforms may generate kudos but could struggle to shift enough votes their way. The Canberra Liberals need to begin honing their broader electoral pitch in the coming year.

The Canberra Liberals' path to power is, of course, a narrow one while Labor and the Greens work well together. The relationship is generally productive, with most policy fissures managed, and papered over, behind closed doors.

Greens backbencher Andrew Braddock, though, caused a ruckus in May when he sponsored a petition from the Gungahlin Community Council that said residents had "completely lost confidence" in the planning system. Then Mr Braddock brought a motion to the Assembly calling for a halt to land sales in the Gungahlin town centre that tested the relationship with Labor.

The government parties eventually agreed to a watered-down motion that required the government to run more community consultation before future blocks were sold.

Everyone stays friends. But one has to wonder how the Greens come off looking to their supporters. Will the faithful tire of a party more Labor than Labor (or so it can seem), or accept that compromise is the necessary ingredient to life in government? A seat at the cabinet table is more productive than protestations from the political wilderness, after all.

The Labor-Greens splits are tales of almosts and not-quites. Like a Cold War drama where one false step leads to disaster, everyone toes the line carefully and territory politics is steered back to calmer waters. A threat to cross the floor here, a dicey motion there.

Long-time Greens minister Shane Rattenbury, who now holds the powerful attorney-general portfolio, was joined in cabinet after the October 2020 election by Rebecca Vassarotti and Emma Davidson, who have both proven to be across their briefs.

Ms Davidson's work in advocating for people in the National Disability Insurance Scheme, and calling out the harmful decisions taken by the Commonwealth, has been strong. If this extends to more public mental health advocacy in 2022, the minister's profile will likely rise.

Full-blown failure and scandal was also avoided in 2021. The ChooseCBR voucher scheme fell in a heap and Business Minister Tara Cheyne was put under the microscope over its failings. But a review found while there were faults, there was no "systemic misuse".

And the discovery of a spreadsheet containing nearly 30,000 workers' compensation claim details online tarnished the government's shine a little, but to no long-lasting effect. Even the ups-and-downs of pandemic management - odd restrictions and uneven business support - were not enough to bring anyone down. The seating arrangements at the cabinet table remain the same.

Not even the sorry saga of dodgy tiles at the Gungahlin swimming pool could sink the government. The territory is footing the bill for repairs, which have struggled on amid COVID-19 delays. But it was a good opportunity for the Liberal member for Yerrabi Leanne Castley to make her mark in the 10^th Assembly.

The Canberra Liberals had more bad luck - of their own creation. Mark Parton, a Liberal member for Brindabella, managed to put his foot in it: a TikTok livestream from the Tuggeranong Parkway, and a run-in with the broadcasting guidelines thanks to a KFC lunch.

Liberal member for Yerrabi James Milligan copped flak for apparently using his email list after he lost his seat at the 2020 election to promote his printing business. He returned to the chamber after Alistair Coe resigned and was cleared by the standards commissioner. Mr Coe's departure gave the party a chance to shed - or at least temper - its arch-conservative reputation.

But who can forget the night of the coal lump. The Canberra Liberals in August attended a ball organised by the party's youth branch where, up for auction, was a lump of coal from the Carmichael mine in Queensland. Keynote speaker: Kevin Andrews. Shaking that conservative tag off under Ms Lee's new leadership is still proving difficult, despite Ms Lee's well-intentioned November trip to the COP 26 climate summit in Glasgow.

In August the squabbles of politics were overshadowed by the ACT government plunging the territory into lockdown on August 12. It was originally for seven days, but the government quickly knew it would be longer. Exposure sites in nightclubs attended by a largely unvaccinated population were a taste of things to come.

The rhythm of life in Canberra for the next 63 days, five hours and 59 minutes was marked by a daily press conference at ACT Health's Bowes Street offices. The Chief Minister, Mr Barr, chief health officer Kerryn Coleman (or her deputy, Vanessa Johnston) and the Health Minister, Ms Stephen-Smith, fronted up to reveal the case numbers and take question after question.

The ACT had clearly learned from other states. The press conferences were smooth. Journalists spoke into a microphone and took turns. There was less yelling but probably a similar level of obfuscation. The conferences were robust and useful.

It was the latest in a string of crises for the ACT, catapulting its political leaders to new levels of public recognition.

"There have been a couple of moments that have absolutely rocked me. One was the first ventilated case that was really, in a serious condition in ICU. It was touch and go," Mr Barr said in September.

"And then when the young man with no pre-existing conditions found himself very quickly very sick. They were two moments that, you know, really genuinely - you appreciate the gravity of all of this."

It was, as Mr Barr foreshadowed in August, a difficult spring. But the territory's highly efficient mass vaccination program kicked into gear as soon as Commonwealth vaccine supply allowed, and Canberra navigated its way through the occasional absurdities of easing restrictions and shifting timelines.

Canberrra also avoided the heat of vaccine mandate protests, with the government choosing not to implement a community wide vaccine requirement to attend venues and other events. Mandates were a "solution looking for a problem" in a highly vaccinated capital, Mr Barr said again and again.

Industry specific mandates came with a degree of reluctance, but did not generate mass panic. More than 98 per cent of Canberrans have two COVID-19 vaccine doses, and only a few hundred people gathered in Glebe Park in November to protest vaccine requirements.

During lockdown, the switch to vaudeville was well and truly thrown on August 25 when Mr Barr wanted to know how the then deputy premier of NSW John Barilaro knew COVID-positive sewage in Merimbula came from Canberrans.

"I don't think the sewage detection is quite that sophisticated to be able to tell whether it's a Canberran's poo or somebody else's," Mr Barr said.

"Does John know something about the poo that other people don't? I mean, if he's got scientific evidence that can back it up, that it's Canberra poo. OK, all right. But I mean, seriously, I'm just not interested in having whose poo it was arguments with John Barilaro at the moment."

After a period of generally low case numbers following the end of the lockdown, Canberra's fortunes have reversed. The Omicron variant of COVID-19 is driving the highest daily case numbers since the pandemic began in March 2020, and the ACT government will need to swing into gear to run another quick campaign to ensure strong take up of booster vaccination doses.

Canberrans showed they had good compliance with restrictions, testing rules and quarantine. It's put the territory in a healthy position overall to face the Omicron variant - and the variants that follow - with a shifting focus to personal responsibility.

While there's lots on track in the governing agreement between Labor and the Greens, the parties must conquer a big agenda in 2022 to deliver what they've promised before the 2024 territory election.

The Legislative Assembly will consider serious sexual consent reform in the new year, which offers the chance to be a vital community wide conversation. The Assembly will also debate significant drug decriminalisation laws, which gained the support of a committee tasked with inquiring into them; lowering the voting age to 16; and raising the age of criminal responsibility.

Canberra may have dodged the light rail cracking issue which scuppered services on Sydney's inner-west line, but the new year will bring another significant pinch: works to raise London Circuit will significantly disrupt traffic in and out of Civic, with a flow-on effect on many of the territory's arterial roads. Never underestimate a traffic jam's power to provoke ire at a government. They will need to work hard to keep the light rail dream alive for frustrated motorists.

There's also the issue of housing affordability. House prices have skyrocketed with interest rates at record-low levels. A severe divide has emerged between the government and the opposition. The government wants infill, carving up blocks in the suburbs to create more homes; it's a vision of shared community space and smaller dwellings replacing private quarter-acre kingdoms. The opposition wants sprawl: blocks freed up in greenfield developments to keep the dream of backyard cricket at an affordable price alive.

This issue is Canberra's defining debate - it always has been - and a poor outcome threatens to unravel the social fabric in the capital for generations to come.

With just 35 sitting days in 2022, Labor, Greens and the Liberals will need to work in quick time. In the shadow of a federal election campaign, there'll be plenty to talk about.

The territories' right to legislate for voluntary assisted dying, anyone?

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