Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has put forward "the father of reconciliation" Patrick Dodson as the replacement for outgoing Western Australian senator Joe Bullock.



Cheered on by a large throng of Labor MPs, Mr Shorten described Mr Dodson as "a person of unmatched intelligence, integrity and achievement" who would provide "wisdom and guidance" to the Parliament.

The vacancy, created by Senator Bullock's surprise resignation over same-sex marriage on Tuesday night, is for the remaining four years of Senator Bullock's six-year term. But in the event of a rumoured double dissolution election, Mr Dodson could face the people of Western Australia as soon as July.



Mr Dodson, former chairman of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation and commissioner into Aboriginal deaths in custody, said he accepted the offer after "deep thought".



"Your phone call came as a surprise and it took me a little while to adjust to the idea that you proposed," he said at a press conference in Canberra on Wednesday.

"Having spent much of my adult life trying to influence our national conversations, debate, government and the Parliament from the outside, it is now time for me to step up to the plate and have a go."