The Greens 'party of renters' lines drawn to get ready for the 48th Parliament

It is not a year since the last federal election and the Greens have already cast themselves as the "party of renters" and are handing out what effectively are how to vote cards.

Greens leader Adam Bandt, who whipped himself election-rally ready at the National Press Club on Wednesday, revealed the Greens are attending rental property inspections and handing out cards saying "Rent freeze now. Ask me how" to those in the long, dispiriting queues.

Talk about a captive audience.

Well-resourced after the last election's record boost in parliamentary numbers, the Greens are also door-knocking in Labor electorates over housing policy. It all ties in with broader social policy and budget priorities.

"It makes me incredibly angry that they're leaving people in poverty and then tinkering around the edges and saying maybe we will raise income support by a little bit,' Mr Bandt charged. "No! I want to hear less talk about missiles and more talk about fixing the rental and housing crisis by putting a rent freeze on."

The rent freeze idea has few friends. Not the federal government nor the independent Parliamentary Budget Office (which crunched the numbers, and had concerns about crashing the market). But there is rent control in the ACT where the Greens are in government with Labor.

The line in the sand over the rental crisis, the focus on the minor party's core constituency of renters, is being built into an ambitious election platform. The Liberals are "irrelevant" and Labor is "shifting to the centre right".

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Mr Bandt declared the Greens as the party of renters "whose numbers continues to grow", stressed mortgage holders (they are growing too) and a "generation of young people left behind" (another big growth market).

"We will make rent a political issue at the next election," he said.

The Greens have long held great balance of power ambitions, but the May 2022 result was a watershed and the next election, possibly as soon as 2024, could see the party go even better in House representation.

The Greens leader was even asked on Wednesday about whether he would seek seats in the federal cabinet if the Greens won the balance of power in the lower house. No spoilers were given though.

But seats like Richmond in NSW, Macnamara in Victoria and no doubt Canberra in the ACT are in the Greens' sights.

And it is not just a coincidence that the Labor Member for Canberra Alicia Payne is standing up this week with hundreds of other signatories and calling to raise the rate of JobSeeker and other welfare payments. The two-time MP is staring down increasing threats in her seat and she is taking the chance to speak up about contentious government policy.

For the Prime Minister's part, while the government has to negotiate with the Greens over all manners of legislation in the Senate, Mr Albanese is increasingly frustrated by the seeming block over the Housing Australia Future Fund bill.

He sees the Greens as joining the "noalition" contagion of the Coalition. Half the critique was still aimed at the opposition, but he still had a whack over "bizarre" and "farcical" behaviour.

The Greens are still needed in the 47th Parliament, but the lines have been drawn to get ready for the 48th.