Labor senator Nova Peris has announced she will not recontest her Northern Territory seat at the July 2 election.
She was reportedly considering quitting politics to take up the AFL's top Indigenous job.
"After careful deliberation with my family, I have chosen not to recontest my Senate seat in the federal election," she said in a statement.
"It is my intention that I will serve out my term and fully support and endorse my replacement for the number-one position on the Labor Senate ticket, whoever that might be."
Senator Peris, who won gold playing hockey at the 1996 olympics, was Labor Prime Minister Julia Gillard's "captain's pick", replacing sitting Senator Trish Crossin and becoming Australia's first female Indigenous federal politician.
Fairfax newspapers and the ABC have reported that she's one of a number of candidates in negotiations with AFL executives to replace Jason Mifsud who left the position as the league's head of diversity in February.
