Victorian Senator Richard Di Natale has been elected unopposed to the leadership of the Australian Greens, following the resignation of incumbent Christine Milne earlier this morning.
Di Natale was hoisted to the party leadership without opposition, despite earlier reports speculating that the race for party leadership would be contested between Di Natale, Scott Ludlam and Adam Bandt.
Fellow Senators Scott Ludlam and Larissa Waters have been elected as Di Natale’s co-deputy leaders.
Di Natale, a general practitioner, was elected to the Federal Senate in 2011, after a pair of near miss-wins in the Victorian State Parliament seat of Melbourne.
Di Natale’s cornerstone achievement thus far in his relatively short Parliamentary career was securing $5billion towards Medicare-funded dentistry – in his words, “laying the foundation for Denticare,” which is the Greens-backed push for universal oral health care.
Di Natale is scheduled to front media at 1:30pm this afternoon. More to come.
Photo: William West via Getty Images.
