Former Greens leader Bob Brown has called on the party's New South Wales senator Lee Rhiannon to step aside, saying the party is in need of renewal.

Key points: Bob Brown calls on NSW Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon to step aside

Bob Brown calls on NSW Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon to step aside Mr Brown says the NSW branch of the party needs renewal to attract voters

Mr Brown says the NSW branch of the party needs renewal to attract voters Says Greens have underperformed in NSW due to "old guard" not moving on

Mr Brown blamed the poor vote for the NSW Greens at the last election on the "old guard", and said it was time for fresh blood.

"Lee's given long service to the Greens but it's time for renewal," Mr Brown said.

Asked directly if he thought Senator Rhiannon should step aside, he said:

"That would be my advice. I think we should have two senators in NSW, not one, and so I think when the change comes we'll see more senators in NSW, not just a replacement."

Mr Brown said the Greens were not performing in NSW as well as they should be.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Watch Duration: 9 minutes 53 seconds 9 m Bob Brown calls on Senator Lee Rhiannon to stand down

"You've only got to compare the results in this election in Sydney to those in Melbourne, where the best seat got twice the vote of the best seat in Sydney, to see that it is lagging behind, and the potential for giving NSW voters a really great progressive Green vote is being missed.

"I've been approached in the streets in Sydney by people saying, 'I'm a Green but I'm not going to vote for the candidates you've put up here in Sydney.' That's not the feedback I get in Melbourne or elsewhere around the country. We need a change.

"The incumbents in NSW, certainly that's Lee in the Senate, have given great service but are not hitting a chord with the voters at the moment and we need to move on.

"We didn't get a single quota for the Senate in NSW, whereas we got well over a quota in Western Australia and Tasmania and Victoria. Something's missing there and it's an appeal, as far as the NSW voters are concerned.

"The result in NSW has been a long-term disappointment to me. That was the state which first registered the name Greens back at the start of the 80s, and it's ostensibly or potentially the greatest Green field, if you like, in politics in Australia. But it lags right behind."

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Rhiannon: 'Look at the agenda Bob is running here'

Lee Rhiannon told 7.30 she would not resign.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Watch Duration: 6 minutes 7 seconds 6 m Lee Rhiannon says she won't resign

"I've just been democratically pre-selected, and elected by the people of NSW, so I've got a job to do, and I'll continue to do that," she said.

"What we saw from Bob was to really single out NSW for attack for the results that we've received in this election, which doesn't really have logic when you consider that there were lower votes in other states.

"What I've called for is that we need to have a respectful discussion and dialogue about how we do improve our results here. Bob did join us in NSW on the election campaign but hasn't raised any of these criticisms with us directly."

She said Mr Brown had privately told her in the past he did not think she should stand for pre-selection.

"Bob told me not to stand in the 2007 pre-selection for the NSW parliament. He said the same thing when I went for pre-selection for the Senate, he flew to Sydney to tell me that. Now that was very disappointing. He's now saying that publicly," Ms Rhiannon said.

"Look at the agenda Bob is running here. He's used to getting his candidate up for pre-selection and when that doesn't work he gives us a hard time."

'For the first time we're seeing factionalism'

He said he was very concerned about the election process currently afoot to replace NSW upper house Greens member John Kaye, who died in May this year.

"For the first time we're seeing factionalism come in in NSW where they've got a block of seven or eight candidates and they hope they'll get a cascade of preferences to get their candidate up.

"That's not what voters want to see and that's not serving the thousands of members of the Greens in NSW properly. We don't want factionalism, we want the best candidates to get up.

"It's a very worrying sign and I wouldn't be speaking out if I wasn't worried about it and didn't think that the voters and the members of NSW Greens — they're great people, I've travelled around and met many of them — if I didn't think they deserved better."

'It's time they got out'

Mr Brown said in-fighting in the NSW Greens, which 7.30 exposed in May, had been disappointing.

"It wasn't just bad timing, it was a very bad look."

He said the NSW Greens had been resisting change for decades.

"I've been aware since the Greens Australia established in 1992, in fact back in 1987 when we had the first national meeting of green-minded people to set up an Australian Greens Party and in NSW it was voted down.

"In 1992 when we got together, NSW was the last of the three parties at that time to join. But it's been opposed to such simple things as establishing a leader for the Greens, and partyroom rules which I brought in when I was in the Senate.

"These are normal, average, ordinary things the public expects to see but it's been held back by the old guard, the longer-serving people in the NSW Greens Party, and it's time they got out and made room for new, younger people more in tune with the Australian public in 2016, just like I did a few years ago.

"The NSW Greens have successfully blocked there being a strong Australian Greens Party working out of a central base, as the two older parties do, because they didn't trust the other states to put in the people, the administration that the Australian Greens deserve."