Health a priority for Greens leader

He might have only been in the Senate for one term, but new Greens leader Richard Di Natale will bring a healthy dose of experience.

The GP and public health specialist was elected in 2010, becoming the Greens' first Victorian senator.

In his previous career the 44-year-old worked on HIV prevention in India, Aboriginal health in the Northern Territory and Victoria's health department as part of an outbreak investigation team.

The father of two, who lives with wife Lucy in Victoria's Otways Ranges, played VFA football for six years and labels himself a long-suffering Richmond Tigers fan.

He claims his achievements in parliament as securing almost $5 billion towards Medicare-funded dentistry and winning a campaign to divest $250 million worth of tobacco stocks from the Future Fund.

He has also led Senate inquiries into issues such as dying with dignity, hospital funding, budget cuts, medicinal cannabis and gambling reform.

Most recently he caused a stir by leading a one-man expedition to West Africa to get a first-hand look at the Ebola crisis.

He was concerned the Abbott government was not doing enough to tackle the outbreak.

But a potential outbreak of disunity will be the key issue Di Natale may have to address before the 2016 federal election.

The Greens have some very outspoken - who some Liberals would call "radical" - senators, and party discipline has been crucial to retaining a national primary vote of about 12 per cent.

The party will be looking for him to be a steadying influence, in a similar manner to outgoing leader Christine Milne.

As far as issues are concerned, Di Natale says he'll be seeking policies that keep Australians healthy - clean air and water, housing, education and a social safety net.

Multiculturalism will also be on the agenda of the son of Italian immigrants.

"The debate on terrorism and refugees means that the multiculturalism issue needs a champion and I'm going to be that champion," he said at his first press conference as leader.

However, climate change will remain a key focus for his party.

"We'll be doing everything we can to ensure that this country once again starts to do what is our moral responsibility, our social responsibility, and our economic duty, and that is to start taking tough action on climate change."

His first chat with Prime Minister Tony Abbott next week will be about "finding some common ground", he says, before the government seeks Greens support for elements of its second budget.