Ms Murray, a mum of two who runs a small winery with her husband at Buttai, will be the Greens candidate for Cessnock in the upcoming state election.

Ms Murray and Mr Shoebridge also announced a Greens government would make TAFE free for all courses up to a Certificate III.

“It’s those initial qualifications that are going to allow people to break through into employment,” Mr Shoebridge said.

Mr Shoebridge said the party was lucky to have Ms Murray as her employment background proved her belief in the party’s push for a shift to renewable energy and the importance of TAFE.

Ms Murray is believed to be the first woman in Australia, and potentially the world, to have run a blast furnace when she was operations superintendent at BHP Newcastle.

When BHP closed, she helped transition almost 100 people into other areas of the company, and then re-skilled herself by doing a TAFE course in winemaking.

“She can show the way in a post-coal workforce,” Mr Shoebridge said.

Ms Murray acknowledged a move away from coal mining was a tough issue to run on in the Hunter, but said it was something that needed to be discussed.

“It’s the elephant in the room and the local MPs don’t want to talk about it,” she said. “We are going to have to do something different and if there’s no transition plan it will crumble in a heap.

“I’ve spoken to miners while out doorknocking and a lot of them are spending their time out of town – the mines aren’t here in Cessnock and Kurri Kurri anymore. If we move to renewables we can bring jobs back to this area.”

Ms Murray said that was where TAFE was important.

“As you move away from coal mining you need to re-skill,” she said.

“If you were out of work you used to be able to take up a course while you were looking for another job, but now its too expensive.

“If it’s free people are much more likely to enrol.

“Cessnock traditionally has low uni qualifications. It can be difficult when its hard to get there. It’s a lot easier to study here than at uni.”

The policy comes after Labor’s pledge of free TAFE for more than 600,000 certificate level places in skill shortage courses over the next decade if it wins in March.

But Mr Shoebridge pointed out that private providers will still be able to access 30 per cent of the total funding pool under that policy.

“They want a minimum of 70 per cent of public funds,” he said. “It should received 100 per cent public funds.”

Mr Shoebridge said the Greens policy would be funded by redirecting funding that currently goes to private colleges.

"There's hundreds of millions of dollars there," he said.