ACTU president Ged Kearney has a federal profile but in a tilt at state politics, is challenging a Greens takeover of the inner Melbourne seat of Brunswick.
Ms Kearney has nominated for Labor preselection for the electorate, hoping to replace outgoing former minister Jane Garrett, who announced on Wednesday she'll make a switch to the upper house.
"To be asked to run for Brunswick, a suburb I know and love - I call it the People's Republic - I just think, 'What an honour'," she told AAP.
"All the issues I fight for federally (through the ACTU) are pertinent issues on a state level."
Ms Kearney said she was originally planning to renominate as ACTU president when the opportunity came.
Ms Garrett holds Brunswick by 2.22 per cent, with the Greens believing they have a fighting chance to snatch it.
Tim Read and Adam Pulford have nominated for Greens preselection.
"Labor might be abandoning Brunswick but the Greens will work hard to deliver a local MP who stands up for their values," state Greens MP Sam Hibbins said.
Ms Garrett, a former emergency services minister, is leaving Brunswick to chase the Western Metropolitan Region seat set to be vacated by the beleaguered Khalil Eideh.
The former emergency services minister, who quit cabinet rather than sign a controversial firefighters' union pay deal, also fought breast cancer in 2016.
Mr Eideh, who announced he is quitting at the 2018 election, is under investigation over allegations Labor MPs used printing entitlements to pay for branch stacking.
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