"I'm easy to dig dirt on. I've said some pretty out there things, I can be bawdy, I've got five kids to three husbands, I've admitted to drug use, I've written about sexual infidelity and abortions, and I've taken my clothes off in public not just once but many times," she says, speaking of her 28 years of stand-up comedy, the thousand-plus Soapbox columns she's written for the Byron Shire Echo.

"I'm an imperfect person and I've been a bit wild - I inhaled!," she says. "That's been used to discredit people in the past but things have changed. People are looking for authenticity now."

Fittingly, for someone choosing to work at what's recently been dubbed (by Julia Banks, former Liberal MP) as 'the most unsafe workplace in the country', Mandy questions what is appropriate behaviour for a politician.

"Who creates these rigid ideas and conservative values about what a politician should be and especially what a female politician should be?," she asks.

When The Australian Greens initially approached Mandy to consider becoming a political candidate, her response was 'maybe next term.'

"Because I was enjoying my life," she recalls, "four of my kids have left home and my career's going really well. I'm so competent in what I'm doing that, to step into an area where I'm a beginner with a lot of work and no guaranteed outcomes, is a high risk."

After she spoke passionately about the region's housing crisis at the launch of her book The Full Mandy, she was approached again, this time with the invitation to consider what it would be like to be in a position to make change.

"I then realised that we don't have another term to sit back and have nothing happen," she says. "After all, there's only so long you can yell at the TV or radio. If I see it through the lens of community and how much I care about change, my answer has to be yes."

Now Mandy has agreed to run, she's taken the challenge on fully. "Once I flicked the switch, it felt completely right," she says. "I'm enjoying it more than I expected, though there are so many meetings!" The meetings she is enjoying are those with key people in the electorate of Richmond, which extends from Ballina to Tweed Heads and takes in Murwillumbah but not Lismore.

Mandy explains that The Australian Greens have traditionally had a strong voice in the upper house and that, to effect change in the lower house, they need more than the one seat currently held - and likely to be retained - by Adam Bandt in Melbourne.

"This is the third most winnable seat for The Greens in Australia," Mandy says.

"The contest here is between The Greens and Labor. The best outcome for this election would be for Labor to win, with the Greens in shared power.

"Most people I know want the Labor party back that we used to believe in - the one that wouldn't have signed off for Adani and would have fought for the environment and refugees.

"The Greens have the capacity to deliver a Labor party that I think people would love to see again - we can make them go further and faster. And, to do that, we need to vote some Greens in!"

Mandy has a keen awareness of important local issues.

"We are in a housing crisis," she says. "We need a serious commitment to public and social housing, with a minimum of 5,000 houses across the region." She places this issue in a larger picture: "We have a compassionless system that is built to favour the few."

State or local politics were never on the table.

"I wouldn't run at state level because we have Tamara Smith, a fantastic Greens incumbent," she says.

"And, I take my hat off to anyone on local government in this fabulous, volatile, engaged area. As resilient as I am, it would be a hard role to make decisions against friends or not be able to go to the beach without someone asking about bins or potholes or having a go at you."

Mandy's been asked why she's not choosing to run as an Independent.

"I love the autonomy of someone like Jacquie Lambie who can shoot from the lip but, if elected (as an Independent), I might be able to raise a conversation but my capacity to create change is limited. And, as much as I value being independent, I like the accountability of being in a party."

It's not like Mandy has had to change her values to align with The Greens.

"My personal values align really well," she says, praising The Greens practice of having their polices and principles clearly laid out on their website.

"It's like reading my own values, including on topics I haven't really thought about - like water management - so, on these, I can be guided by their principles," she says. "As much as some people will vote for me because of who I am, others will vote because of the green triangle."

Entering politics - with the election to be held anytime from later this year to well into 2022 - has added huge uncertainty to Mandy's life in a globally uncertain time. She says that, since late June, she's had $18,000 worth of work cancelled or postponed due to current COVID restrictions.

"I still have to work, so I just have to book everything as if life is going on and then work it out," she says, noting that she receives no income for her political work, even when the election is called. "I've added 40 to 60 hours to my normal week, which is 40 to 60 hours!"

Mandy knows her background is what it is.

"I grew up in a tiny country town in domestic violence with a mum who was widowed when I was young. I know what it's like to live in the heartland of racism with a mixed-race family - I have an Indigenous sister and an adopted Sri Lankan sister - yet I also know what's it's like to be a privileged white girl - I can see my privileges above my sisters."

She reckons her career as a comedian will stand her in good stead in Parliament House.

"Stand-up is a fairly unsafe workplace - Julia Banks has never had to run to her car after a stand-up gig," she says, adding that, from what she's seen of parliament: "It's like a rowdy comedy crowd."

Mandy's on a learning curve with politics: "Politics is new to me but I'm surprised how quickly I'm picking things up," she says. "I'm going to have to get training wheels but I'm never going to be the quiet person in the room."

"I'm not there for my career, I'm not there for a pension," she says. "I'm there to do a job, I'm there to make change. I'm there to break things."

If you were Prime Minister for a day, what three changes would you make?

SHUT THE MINES AND END COAL AND GAS

Straightaway, I'd stop all coal and gas. From that minute, all contracts would be null and void, mines would be shut and repatriated. All workers in that industry would be retrained into setting up renewable developments around the country.

NO MORE MANDATORY REFUGEE DETENTION

I'd end mandatory detention of refugees. I'd get rid of the law that Rudd brought in that says if you come by boat you'll never be permanently settled here. Refugees would be assessed, very quickly, within the community. There are so many communities in Australia that would love to have refugees settled there.

MORE FEMALE LEADERSHIP ROLES

3- I'd insist that parliament was 80 percent female! Why not 50:50? In theory, 50:50 should create an equity but, to create culture change, we need a tilt towards more women in leadership roles. We don't want women going into leadership roles in systems designed by men and having to emulate the men within them. Women have to occupy the roles with the collaboration of other women, to make them different experiences. It will make it better for other men coming through too, there are many men that would not want to work within the aggressive, abusive and archaic structure of parliament at the moment. It's immature and embarrassing. The one-hour sexual harassment training is a joke; you don't change culture by just talking about it.

Then, I'd step down to make way for a First Nation's woman as Prime Minister.