Richard Di Natale elected unopposed as new Greens leader after Christine Milne resigns – as it happened

Milne expresses some regrets about the deal she did with the Coalition to remove the debt ceiling, because she says an associated promise to properly consider climate change in the intergenerational report was broken:

I still think it’s absolutely the right idea to get rid of that [debt ceiling] and stop the country ending up at a crisis every time you hit or you need to go near the debt ceiling. I think that’s right. But what I regret in that case is that I actually believed Joe Hockey when he said he would deliver on a serious climate analysis in the intergenerational report and he didn’t do that. He actually reneged on that and well, you can only take people as you find them.

Christine Milne also declines to directly answer a question as to whether she expressed her intention to stand down to Richard Di Natale and the new co-deputy leaders Larissa Waters and Scott Ludlam before she told the rest of the party?

I’m not going to go into the discussions that go on in political parties. The main thing is that we came to the partyroom today all of us. We have a process that the Australian Greens have looked at.

Q: Did any candidates know in advance? Did any candidates have an inside running in today’s leadership contest?

Look, I’m not going to go into any discussions that have been had because that’s not how the Greens work.

Di Natale refuses to answer a direct question as to whether he knew Milne was going to stand aside today. (This goes to the issue of whether the leadership handover was pre-planned.)

I’m not going to go over who said what to whom, who voted in what way, what discussions were had, I’m not going to talk about the internal discussions. I’m not going to tell you what went on internally. I’m not going to tell you about the internal discussions.

What I’m going to say is there was a unanimous vote of the partyroom. You only need to look at what goes on in other parties to see we handled the transition in exactly the same way as last time and what we showed is this is how you do things maturely. You have the transition from one leader to another. You ensure that all members of the party room are given a vote and they’ve expressed unanimous support for me as leader.

I’m grateful for that support and I’m going to do my best to make sure the faith they put in me is repaid.

(Just for a bit of context: Some Greens insiders are miffed about the way in which the leadership handover was handled. One source tells me they are convinced the outcome was planned prior to Milne announcing her resignation to the rest of the party room.)

Di Natale won’t comment on the party’s approach to the budget. He says he doesn’t believe in Tony Abbott-style “captain’s picks”.

When specifically pressed on whether the Greens might reverse its position on opposing increases to fuel excise, Di Natale leaves the door open to a shift in consultation with his colleagues:

We’ll have a discussion. I backed Senator Milne’s judgement at the time.

The new leader, Richard Di Natale, has thanked his colleagues for electing him:

It’s an enormous responsibility, it’s an honour, it’s a privilege and I’m going to do my best to pay back the faith they’ve put in me.

Di Natale says Christine Milne had a “tough gig” taking over as leader from Bob Brown, who was a colossus in the history of the Green movement, but she had “more than filled those shoes”.

I think if I was to reflect on Christine’s biggest achievement, it was doing what the Australian parliament needs to do again in terms of taking tough action on climate change. She knows more about climate change policy, energy policy than any member of parliament in this place.

Di Natale says Milne was the “chief architect” of the clean energy laws that passed the parliament during the Gillard minority government. Tony Abbott ran a relentless campaign against the “carbon tax”. Di Natale says:

Now I know that some of that’s now gone and I want to let Christine know that there are 11 members of our party room, with me as leader of that party, who will be doing everything we can to ensure that this country once again starts to do what is our moral responsibility, what is our social responsibility, what is our economic duty and that is to start taking tough action on climate change.

Christine Milne is now speaking to reporters in Canberra.

I feel it’s absolutely the right time for this to be happening. The momentum for the Greens around the country is growing.

Milne praises her colleagues...

I feel like they are ready to fly, all of them, and to take the Greens into a wonderful election next year.

...and specifically backs Richard Di Natale, who is the new leader:

He will be an outstanding leader for the party. He’s been a stalwart in the last few years and built a real profile, especially for his concern around health in particular, and I know that Richard brings a lot of experience and will be a wonderful asset to the Greens.

Former Greens leader Bob Brown is speaking to Sky News. He says Milne leaves a “very great legacy” including the $10bn renewable energy fund. Brown says it was one thing from the Greens’ negotiations with Julia Gillard that Tony Abbott had not been able to get rid of.

Brown also credits Milne for the “smooth transition” in the leadership. He says the new leader, Richard Di Natale, will put his own stamp on the leadership and is a “loveable” kind of person:

He’s going to bring a lot of maturity and common sense to the role.

Adam Bandt has just tweeted to say he is happy to move on from the deputy leadership position:

So just to recap developments ahead of the press conference:

• Richard Di Natale, a former GP, has been elected unopposed as leader of the Greens after the sudden resignation of Christine Milne, who has been leader since 2012. Both are due to speak shortly.
• Adam Bandt - until today the deputy leader - no longer has any leadership position in the Greens’ parliamentary team. He is the only Greens member of the House of Representatives, whereas the party has 10 members in the Senate. The member for Melbourne is expected to speak later today.
• The Greens have unveiled two new “co-deputy leaders”: Larissa Waters and Scott Ludlam. Ludlam will also have the job of chair of the party room. Returning officer Rachel Siewert said the deputy positions were elected unopposed.
• The prime minister, Tony Abbott, and opposition leader, Bill Shorten, acknowledged Milne’s commitment to public service - even if they disagreed with her positions. But the defence minister, Kevin Andrews, caused a stir with his tweet questioning whether it really mattered “who will lead the freedom-hating Greens”.

Here’s Richard Di Natale (the new leader of the Greens) as he arrived for this morning’s vote with Adam Bandt (who was deputy leader, but now holds no leadership post).

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