Richard Di Natale has been elected Greens leader in the wake of Christine Milne's shock resignation yesterday.

The Victorian senator was elected unopposed by the party room to replace Senator Milne, who has announced she will end her 25-year career in politics.

Emerging from today's party room meeting, Senator Milne said it was the right time for her to step down and congratulated Senator Di Natale on his election.

"He's been absolutely a stalwart in the last few years and built a real profile, especially for his concern around health in particular," she said.

"I know that Richard brings a lot of experience and will be a wonderful asset to the Greens."

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Listen Duration: 5 minutes 30 seconds 5 m Richard Di Natale was elected unopposed as Greens leader Download 10.1 MB

Senator Di Natale said it was a huge responsibility to take on the leadership and paid tribute to Senator Milne for her support and tireless work over a quarter of a century in public life.

"She came to this job following on from Bob Brown, who was as we all know a colossus in the history of the Green movement, and Christine has more than filled those shoes," he said.

Senator Di Natale, 44, is the son of Italian migrants and worked as a GP before entering Federal Parliament as a Victorian senator in 2010.

He said the future of the party was bright, adding the Greens were "the natural home of progressive, mainstream Australian voters".

"We are the natural home and we're going to give voice to their concerns, decent health care, decent education, affordable housing, public transport," he said.

Senators Larissa Waters and Scott Ludlam were elected as Greens co-deputy leaders, replacing Adam Bandt, the party's only member in the House of Representatives, who congratulated the new leadership team on Twitter.

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The ABC understands some Greens, including the party's outgoing deputy leader and Senator Janet Rice, were not informed of the decision and found out through the media.

When pressed on the issue, Senator Milne refused to reveal who she informed and when.

"I'm not going to go into any discussions that have been had because that's not how the Greens work," she said.

"We are basically a collegiate group and we followed the party room rules exactly as we did last time."

Health, climate change, social security Di Natale's priorities

Senator Di Natale acknowledged that some may be disappointed with the outcome of today's ballot, but added "that's politics".

The new leader said he hoped to meet the Prime Minister Tony Abbott, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten, as well as crossbench senators in coming days.

"We'll look at everything, we'll have a discussion," he said.

"If we're going to move on issues, I'll make sure we tell you about that at the time.

"I think people are sick of the sort of the nonsense that goes on in this place and, you know, if they want someone who is not going to play the game in that way well, great.

"And if that doesn't work out well, I'll go back to growing some veggies at home."

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Watch Duration: 7 minutes 8 seconds 7 m Richard Di Natale speaks to 730

He listed health, climate change and social security among his priorities but insisted he was not an ideologue.

"We've been told we can't afford decent health care at the moment," he said.

"We've been told if you can't afford to see a doctor, tough luck.

"That's not the sort of country we want to be.

"[If] we can afford decent health care, we should be expanding Medicare, we shouldn't be tearing it down.

"We should be bringing dental care into Medicare.

"They're the sort of things I'm going to fight for."

Deputy Prime Minister and National Party leader Warren Truss said he would like to find common ground with the new Greens leader.

"There may be some issues we'll agree on from time to time, and I hope his association with country Victoria will lead him to want to make decisions that are in the interests of country areas as well as people who live in the cities," Mr Truss said.

Senator Milne, 61, said she was stepping down because it was the right time for her and her party.

"I decided that really there needs to be generational change both in Tasmania and in terms of the Australian Greens leadership and that it's either go now and let a party build itself into a good fighting position into the next election or stay until after the election and contest that election and make that promise," she said.

She said the party was in "really good shape" and that the Greens MPs and senators in Parliament were "ready to fly".