Northern Territory Labor senator and former Olympian Nova Peris has confirmed she will quit politics, and is believed to be heading to the AFL to take up their top indigenous job.

Peris is quitting after less than two and a half years in politics.

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Opposition leader Bill Shorten has not ruled out the possibility of Peris’s move, telling media last night: “I’m sure that Nova Peris will continue to make a contribution be it inside the parliament or outside.”

Senator Peris, who won gold playing hockey at the 1996 Olympics, was former prime minister Julia Gillard’s “captain’s pick” in 2013 when she was appointed Australia’s first female indigenous federal parliamentarian.

Fairfax Media and the ABC report she is one of a number of candidates in talks with AFL executives to replace the league’s head of diversity Jason Mifsud, who left in February.