Richard Di Natale is staying on as Greens leader after all his MPs were returned and his party saw swings towards it in Saturday's federal election.
He said the "climate change election" didn't deliver a change in government in part because Labor was inconsistent on its climate policies and fossil fuel mining.
"When you go to Queensland and say one thing to people in Queensland, and come down to Victoria and say another thing to people in Victoria, people know you're not fair dinkum," Senator Di Natale told reporters in Melbourne on Tuesday.
"You have to be absolutely up front and honest with people because people can smell a phoney a mile away."
The Greens will retain its numbers in parliament - nine senators and one lower house MP.
Senator Di Natale said he was looking forward to continuing as leader after the party lifted its vote.
"Before this campaign I can't tell you how many people were telling me we were going to lose half of our Senate numbers," he said.
"Of course it would have been nice to win an additional lower house seat, but we knew we were coming from a long way back.
"We're very disappointed, bitterly disappointed, that we've not been able to see a change of government."
Senator Di Natale urged whoever wins the Labor leadership race to replace Bill Shorten to reach out to the Greens to work together to defeat the coalition.
