Her years at Kurri High School were spent in the student representative council and as Vice Captain pushing for a senior area with shade and benches.

And by the way, the push worked and the school delivered on the request.

The Labor candidate for Paterson said her parents have even told her stories from her childhood about “trying to save animals and make the world a better place”.

“I guess I’ve always just really cared about improving things,” she said. “I think that’s either in you or it isn’t.”

But prior to the federal redistribution, the seats Ms Swanson was interested in representing were already taken by established politicians who she believed were doing a good job.

She saw the redistribution as the opportunity to throw her hat into the ring for the area which incorporates her hometown Kurri Kurri.

“I just thought it was a good fit for me,” she said. 

“There’s a lot of work to be done in our area and I think I’m the person to do that.”

Ms Swanson’s confidence in being able to represent Paterson comes from experience with a well-known political family.

She handed out flyers for previous Hunter MP Eric Fitzgibbon as a young girl, and later went on to work as a staffer for current Hunter MP Joel Fitzgibbon.

Another catalyst for getting into the political arena came from her years of experience hosting radio shows.

“Working in radio I learnt to listen,” she said.

“Hearing people be completely dismayed by politics has really motivated me to put up my hand.

“When a grandmother rings and says ‘my grandson is such a good kid but he can’t get a job’, you can’t help but be impacted by that.”

And impacted she was, Ms Swanson said unemployment is her number one issue in Paterson.

“We need to work really hard to ensure our area is future-proofed and that we have a strategy for how these jobs are going to be created,” she said.

Along with unemployment, Ms Swanson has been vocal about Testers Hollow, the NBN, infrastructure and health, and wants to put her money where her mouth is when it comes to delivering on these issues.

“I don’t want my grandchildren to come to me and say ‘grandma what did you do?’” She said. 

“I want to be able to say I did my bit, I worked really hard for my region to make it a better place.”

The Mercury will be running profiles on all the Paterson candidates in the lead-up to the election.