She's a former migrant, a human rights and employment lawyer, and she's gay. On paper, the new candidate for Melbourne sounds like a Green out of central casting. But Sophie Ismail is central to Labor's plans to wrestle its erstwhile federal seat back from Adam Bandt​.

And the fact she makes Bandt, the sitting Greens MP, look like a white, middle-class male has not been lost on senior Labor Party figures – nor Ms Ismail herself.

Sophie Ismail is taking on the Greens' Adam Bandt in the battle for the federal seat of Melbourne. Credit:Luis Ascui

"Adam Bandt looks like a Labor candidate and I look like a Greens candidate," she said.

The 37-year-old is from Labor's Socialist Left faction. Left candidates have lost the past two elections to Mr Bandt, and voters to the Greens more broadly, as the inner city grows more affluent.