'Google it, mate': Adam Bandt returns gotcha with a whack

"Google it, mate," he told the reporter while taking questions follow his National Press Club address on Wednesday.

He did it again when pressed on his tax policy for mining companies with more profits in the hundreds of millions: "It's in our policy - just go and Google it and have a look at it".

People were turning off politics because the election was "rapidly descending into this abject fact-checking exercise" instead of a contest of ideas, he said. The public was being forced to choose between a "corrupt" government that "deserves to be turfed out" and an opposition with "no vision".

"We are putting new ideas on the table and they are popular ideas that will gain people's support," Mr Bandt said.

Mr Bandt said politicians in Canberra that were sitting on "six figure salaries just passing time" until they could get better paying jobs in the resources industry or lobbying could demonstrate how in touch with everyday people they are by passing laws to lift the minimum wage.

Inflation growth was about one percentage point higher than wage growth and that was part of the problem, he said.

"This election should be an opportunity to lift the standard and turn it into a genuine contest of ideas," Mr Bandt said.

The Greens' big idea this election is expanding Medicare to cover dental in a $7.76 billion a year fully costed policy.

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The party was poised to be "the most powerful third party in the Parliament after the election", he said.

The rush of climate-focused "teal" independents are largely running in lower house seats, where the Greens were not running against them, he said. Except in ACT, where they will challenge high-profile sports figure David Pocock and law professor Kim Rubenstein, both recipients of Climate 200 funding.

Mr Bandt was not worried about climate independents as a threat to the Greens powerbase to negotiate on non-climate policy ideas.

"We welcome them. We are drawing attention to the climate inaction of Liberal and Labor [parties]. The more climate is in the news, the better," he said.

More independents would also mean a power sharing arrangement in the parliament was more likely, where Mr Bandt would lead the party with the largest bloc on the crossbench in negotiations with whoever the prime minister would be.

The other possible arrangement - fiercely rejected by Labor - would be a Labor-Greens coalition.

Labor and the Greens have held a coalition government anywhere in Australia only twice, both times in the ACT with Greens local politician Shane Rattenbury working for Labor chief ministers Katy Gallagher and later Andrew Barr.

"What the ACT shows us is that when you put Greens into the Parliament it is better for people," Mr Bandt said.

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Labor leader Anthony Albanese is having none of it, on Wednesday rejecting any possibility of working with the Greens after the election.