Natasha Stott Despoja should consider returning to politics as a Green, Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown says.
Senator Stott Despoja announced last month that she would not contest next year's election after 11 years as an Australian Democrat.
She plans to spend more time with her husband and toddler son, but has not ruled returning to politics in the future.
Senator Brown said Senator Stott Despoja had done a brilliant job as a senator.
"I hope if Natasha does think about coming back to politics, she'll consider doing that as a Green. Because she's a humanitarian par excellence, she cares for the environment and she thinks long-term," he told the National Press Club.
Senator Stott Despoja was not immediately available for comment.
The Democrats were devastated at the 2004 election with all three senators up for re-election losing.
Of the four remaining senators, only leader Lyn Allison and deputy Andrew Bartlett are standing for election next year.
Senator Brown said he hoped the Democrats survived.
He also refused to back away from his support in 2004 for then Labor leader Mark Latham, whom he described as the "prime minister in waiting" during a visit to a Tasmanian forest.
Mr Latham's political career imploded after he led Labor to its fourth straight loss in October 2004.
He quit politics the following January and later gave his former Labor colleagues a spray when he published his diaries.
Mr Latham also appeared in court after taking a newspaper photographer's camera and smashing it with a claw hammer.
"We've all looked at Mark over the last 12 months and frankly at times I've had some concern," Senator Brown said.
"But he came to the Tasmanian forest and he forced John Howard to move to protect the Tarkine rainforest.
"From where I stood on that day, we saw a politician with the guts to go and see for himself part of this nation's great heritage.
"And Mark Latham, I don't know if you're watching this, but that very big tree under which we both stood - huge, ancient, mammoth, one of the biggest living things on the planet - is saved because you went there."
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