The widely tipped Nick McKim will take over the Tasmanian Greens Senate seat vacated by former federal leader Christine Milne, the party announced on Thursday.
Mr McKim won the job after an exhaustive preselection vote of around 500 Greens party members, who chose between nine candidates.
He is the party's best known serving figure in Tasmania, and can claim deep experience in government to take to the Senate.
The one-time Tasmanian wilderness guide was the first Greens MP to join any Australian ministry, and rose to the post of Education minister for three years from 2011.
He was also the state Greens leader, before a Labor-Green power-sharing government collapsed ahead of an election that decimated the two parties.
After the loss of two of the five Greens members in the 2014 poll, Mr McKim relinquished the state party leadership, and since then, he has been an outspoken opponent in parliament of the state Liberal Government.
The 50-year-old won comfortably in a field of nine candidates through a preselection process that included sessions of political "speed-dating", he disclosed.
At member forums, candidates were given five minutes to speak to a small group, answered questions, and then moved on.
"And just to be clear it was my first experience of speed dating," Mr McKim said.
He told reporters that he would be: "a passionate advocate, for the values of our party, the values of ecological sustainability" and "a fierce advocate for Tasmania's interests in the Senate".
The Senator-designate as warned of a renewed fight over world heritage forest protection in Tasmania, angrily highlighting state Labor's decision to join the Liberals in advocating selective logging for high value timbers in the Wilderness World Heritage Area.
"Logging for whatever species inside the Word Heritage Area is akin to bulldozing the pyramids of Egypt and using the rubble for road gravel," Mr McKim said on Thursday.
"It's just not acceptable, and we will strongly stand up for that using all the means at our disposal."
The World Heritage Committee at its June meeting asked for logging be prohibited across the entire Tasmanian Wilderness, but both major parties are now seeking to take speciality timber out of an extension added last year.
Divisions over logging
State Resources Minister Paul Harriss claimed that at one point, the Greens, as part of the previous government, supported the small scale logging.
"If Nick McKim is going to become a Senator for Tasmania, he needs to be honest about his record in the Tasmanian Parliament," Harriss said.
Mr McKim named the extension as a key achievement of his political career in Tasmania, which included his choice as the first Greens minister in any Australian government before a heavy electoral loss in 2014.
"When you're in government, you're always going to lose a bit of bark," he said. "But I look back to some of the things we achieved such as the 170,000 hectare extension to the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area with absolute pride."
Hot favourite to win preselection for Milne's seat, Mr McKim is still a serving state MP, who was a state Greens leader, and Education Minister for three years.
His nomination to the Senate must be confirmed by the Tasmanian Parliament, where a casual vacancy was last refused in 1987 by the Gray Liberal government. There was no indication the Hodgman government would stand in the way this time.
After stepping down from the federal leadership in May, Ms Milne is set to formally resign from the Senate, and disclosed a busy international agenda ahead.
"I've just been appointed as the first Ambassador for the Global Greens," she said. "I can imagine that I'll be spending a fair bit of time helping Greens around the world.
"I'll be going to the Paris [climate] COP at the end of the year to talk about how I might fit in with some global role on climate change in particular," she said. "Certainly on World Heritage issues, you'll find me at World Heritage meetings when required."
Ms Milne ruled out seeking a formal United Nations role.
"I have no intention of working in an executive/director type of role again. I just want to be able to intervene where I can be of assistance," she said.
