The gloves are off in the federal seat of Swan, with Labor's Tammy Solonec labelling Liberal incumbent and former ward of the state and tradesman Steve Irons a "rich, white man" and Mr Irons suggesting Ms Solonec is so unknown it is like he does not have an opponent.

Mr Irons holds the inner Perth electorate covering the area between the Swan River, Canning River and the Roe Highway by a notional margin of 7.34 per cent.

Analysts say Labor needs a significant national swing against the Coalition and a strong backlash against the Barnett Government to win.

Swan is not regarded as vulnerable as other metropolitan seats like Cowan, Burt or Hasluck but would be an indication the Turnbull Government is in serious trouble if it looked like changing hands.

Labor is running a full marginal seat campaign and the Liberals consider it a key electorate they cannot take for granted.

Both Mr Irons and Ms Solonec, a Greens candidate at the last state election, have identified jobs as a central issue, each arguing their party can best guide the economy and help people struggling with the resources downturn.

Both sides are also trying to claim credit for the Gateway WA road infrastructure project around Perth airport, which was started under Labor and finished under the Liberals.

Swan is a very diverse and multicultural electorate and Ms Solonec, an Indigenous human rights lawyer, believed she had an advantage over Mr Irons.

"Yeah, I do. Yes. You know, Steve is a rich, white man," Ms Solonec told the ABC.

"So, I'm not saying anything bad about him at all. It's just that I have a different perspective.

"I'm a woman, I'm a multicultural woman. I've been a sole parent for a long time. I understand the struggles of everyday people.

"And it's those people who are doing it tough at the moment, it's those people that need someone like me in Parliament to be able to advocate for them."

Solonec's comments 'disappointing' says Irons

Mr Irons, who was elected to Swan in 2007, was a ward of the state as a child before being placed in a foster family. He later became an electrician, ran his air-conditioning business and was for a time a single parent.

He said he was disappointed in Ms Solonec's comments.

"I was fostered and put in a babies home at the age of six months until I was three-and-a-half years old. I was fostered out," he said.

"If she thinks that I'm a rich, white man that's her own outlook on life, and I feel sorry that she says that without even knowing me personally and my background to make a decision like that."

The pair have met only once, at an ANZAC Day ceremony.

Labor candidate Tammy Solonec, with Senator Pat Dodson, says she would make a "fierce representative" for the people of Swan. ( Supplied: Facebook )

"I don't know a lot about Tammy and quite a few people in my electorate are saying that as well, that they don't even think I've got an opponent as yet," Mr Irons said.

Ms Solonec is a Nyikina woman from Derby and a single mother of two teenage children, who lives in the electorate.

She has worked as a lawyer for the Aboriginal Legal Service, Amnesty and since January, the union, United Voice.

She has campaigned against the closure of remote Indigenous communities and advocates early intervention in troubled families to keep them together and minimise the removal of children, except in cases of abuse and neglect.

In 2013, she stood as a state candidate for the Greens in the unwinnable number two upper house spot for the South Metropolitan Region and has never voted for Labor in her life.

But Ms Solonec, who joined the ALP last year, said Labor's policies now better suited her beliefs than the Greens and it would be a "wasted vote" to support her old party.

"I want to be in a party that is capable of governing, and Labor is that party," she said.

"I would make a fierce representative for the people of Swan."

Irons 'weaker opponent' after travel entitlements controversy

Labor's campaign strategists regard Mr Irons as a "weaker" opponent than sitting Liberal MPs in marginal WA seats, because of several recent controversies involving the backbencher.

Mr Irons was forced to pay back almost $11,000 in travel entitlements in 2013 after spending close to 150 nights in Melbourne, where his now-wife lived, and Adelaide.

The MP said he had been the one to raise the issue and volunteered to pay the money back.

Liberal MP Steve Irons with a constituent in Victoria Park, says the electorate can distinguish between State and federal issues. ( ABC News: Nic Perpitch )

Mr Irons, the chair of the House of Representatives health committee in the last parliament, also described as a "terrible mistake" a drink driving conviction in the ACT last year.

Notre Dame University political analyst Martin Drum said national and state factors would likely decide if Ms Solonec won Swan off Mr Irons.

"It's the national swing that will have to get her over the line, 7.3 per cent is pretty big," Dr Drum said.

"So, her own candidacy alone won't win that. It will be about how much the Liberals are on the nose in WA.

"If they manage to win that seat they'd be doing exceptionally well and the Liberals would be quite worried. However, when the swing is on, anything's possible."

Ms Solonec believed voters were disgruntled with the Barnett Government, which has just delivered a budget with record debt and deficit and is struggling in the polls and with leadership questions.

However, Mr Irons thought people identified the difference between state and federal issues.