Greens deputy leader Adam Bandt is perhaps facing his biggest political challenge yet - holding onto the seat of Melbourne.
Mr Bandt retains the inner city seat by a six per cent margin after his victory at the 2010 poll, ending more than a century of Labor dominance.
Although he polled less than Labor's Cath Bowtell, Mr Bandt was ushered into the lower house - where he helped form a minority government with Labor - on the back of Liberal preferences.
But this time around, the Liberals are preferencing the Greens last, putting the Greens' hold on Melbourne in jeopardy.
Ms Bowtell and Mr Bandt will face off again on September 7, and Mr Bandt believes he will triumph.
"I'm aiming to win it in our own right, it's not sustainable in future to rely on other parties to win," he says.
Mr Bandt calculates he only needs a small boost in his primary vote - a swing of five per cent - to win.
He points to a recent Galaxy poll showing the party's primary vote for Melbourne at 48 per cent.
"If that is repeated on polling day, then it doesn't matter what deal Labor and Liberal reach on swapping preferences, the Greens will win," he says.
But Ms Bowtell does not think the Greens will poll high enough to pull off victory.
Voters are also sick of minority government, believing it has bad for the country, the Labor candidate says.
"They haven't enjoyed the toxic nature of the debate and I think they're looking to make sure on September 7 we quite clearly elect a government."
However, Mr Bandt says the major parties have let people down, particularly on the treatment of refugees, education cuts and climate change.
"There is a sense society is becoming less caring and most recently that's been manifested in the appalling treatment of refugees and the race to the bottom between Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott," he says.
"A lot of people are very upset, sad and angry at the PNG deal.
"People understand we have neighbours living in suburbs like Richmond who came here as refugees many years ago and made the area a better place who wouldn't have been allowed into the country under Labor's new policy so I think that is a very important issue.
"The treatment of refugees as political pawns has really upset a lot of people."
Ms Bowtell nominates education and transport as the two biggest issues electors have raised with her.
"A lot of the conversations I'm having with people in the seat are around obviously the school funding reforms, but also early childhood, TAFE and higher education," she says.
"The second thing that comes up a lot are transport infrastructure and congestion, and the debate between Labor, that will fund the Melbourne Metro Rail project, and the Napthine proposal for the East-West tunnel."
If elected, Ms Bowtell says she will work hard to ensure Labor's school funding reforms and national disability insurance scheme live up to their promise.
She will also try to convince Victoria's Liberal government to build Melbourne's Metro Rail project, which Labor has pledged $3 billion towards.
Liberal candidate Sean Armistead says the key issue is jobs.
"I think we've got to make sure we have a strong economy. The key to that is make sure we get as many people as we can into jobs," he says.
Mr Armistead says public-private partnerships need to be encouraged to create meaningful employment, particularly for the long-term jobless.
Political watchers are divided over whether Melbourne will fall to Labor.
Monash University politics expert Dr Zareh Ghazarian says Labor is virtually guaranteed victory in the seat, on the back of Liberal preferences.
He estimates Mr Bandt will poll under 40 per cent in primary votes, not enough to secure the seat without a major party's preferences.
"If he does lose, well it's going to be a fairly significant loss for the Greens because Adam Bandt has proven to be a very effective political operator and a very effective parliamentarian, so I think they're going to have a pretty big hole to fill."
But University of Melbourne public policy fellow Nicholas Reece thinks the Greens can retain it.
"I think the decision by the Liberals to preference Labor ahead of the Greens is a boost for Labor's campaign in the seat, but it's by no means a decisive step," he says.
