She may have been underslept and hankering for a coffee, but Verity Firth was still in a peppy mood on the campaign trail outside Orange Grove Public School.
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Public education is the Labor aspirant's natural habitat. An education minister in the former Labor government, Ms Firth, who is seeking election to her old seat of Balmain, was up early collecting signatures in support of building a new inner-city high school when Fairfax Media stopped by.
In the years since Labor was booted from power, Ms Firth has headed a charity helping financially disadvantaged public school students at the Public Education Foundation. She says the federal government's education cuts helped convince her to seek a return to politics.
"I was so outraged at [federal education minister Christopher] Pyne getting rid of Gonski funding, it just absolutely struck to the core of my most passionate belief - that you need to create a high-quality, accessible education system so everyone can reach their potential," Ms Firth says.
Schools, childcare, sports fields and playgrounds are hot-button issues in this fast-growing seat in Sydney's inner west, where flotillas of prams fill the footpaths and overcrowding forces some siblings to attend different schools.
A Balmain victory for Ms Firth would be particularly sweet for Labor - the party formed there in 1891 and its loss to the Greens at the last election reflected its loosening hold over progressive, inner city politics.
But firmly standing in the way of Ms Firth's political homecoming is Balmain Greens MP Jamie Parker, the party's first member in the NSW lower house. His 3.5 per cent margin against the second-placed Liberals in 2011 strengthened to 5 per cent after an electoral redistribution in 2013. However, according to ABC election analyst Antony Green, his notional margin against Ms Firth is a wafer-thin 0.4 per cent.
"We have had a very significant impact. Locally we've worked with the community to win against many bad decisions," Mr Parker said, listing the government's moves to evict the Glebe Youth Service and downgrade facilities at Balmain Hospital.
The Greens also successfully moved lower house resolutions such as securing ICAC funding and increasing support for preschool education. "We're pushing the Parliament ... in a direction of transparency, supporting a fairer society and promoting a cleaner economy," he says.
But Ms Firth downplayed his achievements. "The Greens really are still effectively a protest party ... there's only so much [Mr Parker] can do as one lone voice in Parliament," she says.
The Balmain electorate covers Annandale, Balmain, Birchgrove, Camperdown, Glebe, Leichhardt, Lilyfield, and Rozelle - suburbs at the epicentre of what Mr Parker called planning "mega projects" such as the Bays Precinct foreshore renewal and the WestConnex motorway.
"All across Sydney [there has been] a lack of good planning. The changes that we've had in our population were not effectively dealt with by Labor and the Liberals," he says.
A second win would cement Balmain as a Green seat and, according to Mr Parker, send a message that voters want "a different type of politics", free from the scandals that have engulfed both major parties in recent years.
The Liberals won a hefty 32.6 per cent of the primary vote in 2011, but a repeat performance on Saturday is unlikely. The party's preference flows in Balmain will also be critical.
Ms Firth denied that the imperative to pick up both progressive and conservative votes had left her straddling an awkward political divide.
"You've just got to stand for what you stand for, and win them over on the arguments," she said.
Your seat-by-seat guide to the NSW election:
<a href="/interactive/2015/nsw-election/electorates/electorates.html?el=Balmain" _rte_href="/interactive/2015/nsw-election/electorates/electorates.html?el=Terrigal">Key facts on NSW electorates</a>
