Australian Greens leader Richard Di Natale can't click his finger and turn eight lower house seats green, but is confident the party will be a force in the next parliament.
The Greens want an end to offshore detention of asylum seekers, but Senator Di Natale refuses to say if it would be a make or break issue in any balance of power negotiations.
"They are the starting point for any negotiation and it's a negotiation," he said on Wednesday of the Greens' priority list in the event of minority government discussions.
Senator Di Natale rejected Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's warning of "havoc" if the election delivered another Labor-Greens-independent minority government.
He said the Greens would undertake responsible, accountable negotiations.
"That's what we'll bring, a force for stability compared to the two parties who have been racked by internal division and chaos," Senator Di Natale told reporters in Melbourne.
Senator Di Natale expects it will be a tight election result, predicting three or four "nail-biters" in Victoria and a couple more across the country.
His party wants to lift its primary vote, which fell 3.1 percentage points to 8.6 per cent in the 2013 election, and achieve big swings in targeted seats.
"If we do those two things, we're a chance of ensuring we return our Senate team and potentially pick up another senator and to put ourselves in the contest in these lower house seats."
The party has targeted at least eight lower house seats, although its leader concedes they could take another two or three electoral cycles to turn green.
"It's not something that we're going to be able to click our fingers and change quickly," he said.
"We're not going to see the eight or 10 lower house seats that we've nominated as priorities for us turn green at this election.
"But I'm hoping that we will see at least significant swings to the Greens in these seats and if we achieve that that puts us in the contest to potentially win one or two of those seats."
Greens Member for Melbourne Adam Bandt said the Greens had a real chance to become a permanent third force in the lower house.
"At this election right around this area of Melbourne and all the seats adjoining mine, there is a very, very real prospect that we will break through and become not only the permanent third force in the Senate but in the House of Representatives as well. It's coming."
