Greens Treasury spokesperson Adam Bandt MP says the Greens will fight the government's plan to push up the goods and services tax.

"The Greens will fight tooth and nail to stop any GST increase," Mr Bandt said.

"The last 24 hours have confirmed what we have feared for some time. Malcolm Turnbull is testing the waters to see how far he can hike up this regressive tax."

"We accept the Budget has a revenue problem, but there are better ways to raise revenue, such as removing unfair tax breaks for big polluters and the very wealthy."

The Australian Greens have challenged new Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to dump the "nope, nope, nope" attitude of his predecessor when it comes to economic reforms that would reduce wealth inequality and face up to the reality of global warming.

"You can't have a serious economic plan if you've got Tony Abbott's climate policy leading into this election, and that's where Malcolm Turnbull is right now," said Greens Leader Richard Di Natale.

The Greens say any change to Australia's tax system must be progressive, correcting rising inequality and acting on global warming.

"The whole point of tax is to raise the revenue we need to pay for the Australian society we want: caring, innovative, healthy, and protected from the impacts of global warming" said Greens Leader Christine Milne.

"That means ending taxpayer support of polluting fossil fuels; it means actually collecting the tax owed by corporate Australia and multi-nationals, and it means closing tax loopholes for the richest among us.

Greens Leader Christine Milne says the Abbott government is attempting to trick the states into talking about the GST, to distract from his brutal budget and the opportunities that still exist to raise revenue from his big business mates.

"My message to the states is: don't fall for Tony Abbott's GST ploy. The Prime Minister is trying to fool you and distract the community from his cruel budget cuts," Greens Leader Christine Milne said.