Vineyard owner keen to fill Brown vacancy

The father of two, who has previously stood for the Legislative Council seat of Windermere and the Senate on the Greens ticket, said he made the decision yesterday after discussing it with his family on Saturday night.

``This opportunity came up and it will probably never happen again,'' he said.

Mr Whish-Wilson said it was too early to talk about policy ideas but he said he would be ``propositional rather than oppositional''.

``Whatever I do it's going to be a positive campaign,'' he said.

In his previous tilts for office, Mr Whish-Wilson has focused on job creation.

He has also been a passionate critic of the approval process for Gunns' proposed pulp mill.

He said Greens branches were calling for nominations and that he hoped the net would be cast as wide as possible to ensure a strong field of candidates.

The party is understood to be announcing the process for preselection today, which is likely to include a selection panel interviewing candidate hopefuls.

Mr Whish-Wilson is a candidate considered to have broad appeal, with extensive experience with international finance, working in corporate finance in Sydney, Melbourne, London, New York, Hong Kong and China.

Hobart alderman Bill Harvey said he would not rule out seeking endorsement from the party to contest the Senate seat but that he would wait to see what the process would be before making a decision.

Hobart Deputy Lord Mayor Helen Burnett, who fell short of winning a seat at the last state election for the Greens, said she did not wish to comment on whether she would contest or not.

Other potential candidates include failed Denison House of Representatives candidate Geoff Couser and former Tasmanian Greens leader Peg Putt.

Senator Brown said he would leave the Senate by June.