"The general feeling is that housing should be about shelter and making a home rather than an investment strategy."

Saeedi says the Greens' approach to the issues and a desire for greater government stability from a "truly democratic party" appealed to local voters. "We need to get rid of large political donations from interest groups that have a history of influencing government policy."

Saeedi says climate change in particular resonated with many locals she had spoken to, who, for example, had been laid off from CSIRO, and was also linked to the issues of housing affordability and energy prices. "You've got those who have invested in solar and are now seeing the return and you've got those who really want to ... To reduce their energy bills and they're finding it more difficult to make that investment," she says. "A lot of these issues are linked, how democracy works is linked to climate change, too, where you see the fossil fuel industry heavily influencing government policy and really preventing governments from acting in the best interests of the country as a whole."

Both of her parents are public servants, along with other family and friends, and Saeedi says she watched as Labor and Liberal governments cut the sector affecting Canberra's cultural institutions and the CSIRO. "The problem that Canberra seems to have is that Fenner is deemed to be such a safe seat that we're seen as being almost not worth fighting for and we get attacked from all sides because they don't see they have something to win or gain."

While she is hopeful of a swing towards the Greens in Fenner, the election for her is about making the seat more marginal to "scare" Labor into doing a better job at standing up for Canberra. "I'm certainly up against it. I like to think it's a seat the Greens will be able to take in the future, whether that's one or two elections away. We've seen lots of undecided voters who are really going to go away and look at the policy platform of each party."

She says her background in refugee law drew her into politics and the Greens are the only party with a sustainable policy on how to manage Australia's humanitarian intake. "The residents of Fenner and Canberra in general are really sick of working so hard for our tax dollars to be being spent detaining people on remote islands."

Saeedi says the Greens were the first party to call for the removal of negative gearing and capital gains exemptions and greater investment in public housing. As well as its member-driven policy platform, the party also has "great bills" to reform political donations.

"We give voters real certainty in what we stand for, we don't change policies based on polling or the current political climate."