Change is on the horizon and Australia's major parties have been warned to gear up.
Australians head to the polls on May 3 after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced the federal election date on Friday morning.
The political battle has begun in earnest with Labor and the coalition delivering strong opening pitches, but a growing number of voters are expected to shun the major parties in favour of crossbenchers such as the Greens.
"The election's on and minority government is coming," Greens leader Adam Bandt told reporters in Canberra on Friday.
"This is a once-in-a-generation chance to kick Peter Dutton out and get Labor to act."
Australia is widely tipped to elect a federal minority government only the third time since 1910, with the first in 1940 and the other in 2010.
During the latter, the Greens successfully pushed to include children's dental services in Medicare, and another minority parliament would allow the party to advocate for more.
Mr Bandt said one of the Greens' top priorities would be to expand Medicare-covered dental services to all Australians, and the party would also push a Labor-led government to cap rent increases, act on climate change, wipe student debt and tax big corporations.
Both major parties are throwing significant resources at Greens battlegrounds in inner-city Brisbane seats, and in Melbourne electorates where the minor party lost only narrowly.
"They're going to come hard together with their backers and shadow attack groups," Mr Bandt said.
"We take nothing for granted."
The Greens currently hold four seats in the lower house but are campaigning strongly in five others, according to Mr Bandt.
The party is also mounting campaigns in Perth, the Adelaide seat of Sturt and the electorate of Richmond on the NSW north coast.
"People want more voices represented in parliament," Mr Bandt said.
"They understand that we can't keep voting for the same two parties and expecting a different result."
