Cr Osborne, who has clocked up almost a decade on Newcastle City Council, says the Greens can offer the electorate investments in key policy areas.

If elected, the party has promised to build 122,000 new houses across Australia, including in the Newcastle electorate, for the vulnerable who need crisis accommodation.

The party would also spend an extra $2 billion on top of the Labor Party’s $3 billion to help lift the standard of public schools, and it would discard the government’s $2.3 billion cuts to universities. 

Cr Osborne said the policies had been developed in conjunction with ­communities including the seat of Newcastle. 

“Greens policy has been developed collaboratively; there has been discussions at a local level in Newcastle, at a state level and at a national level,” he said.

“Our policies aren’t developed by people behind the scenes ... the Greens are the voice of reason.”

He said the region’s economic position would drastically improve if an investment in renewable energy was made.

“There has been a number of studies that show renewable energy will create 15,000 jobs in the Lower Hunter,” he said.

“We need an investment in renewable energy technology because Newcastle needs a future away from fossil fuels.”

Cr Osborne supports the mining tax and said it needed to be revised.

“If we fix the loopholes in the mining tax we could get $43 billion over the forward estimates,” he said.

“While ever there are loopholes in that tax there will be next to no revenue coming out of it.”