FORMER music industry publicist Brent Hampstead's attempt to win the seat of Glass House for Labor has been grounded in the lessons he learnt in the 2015 campaign and the diverse influences of an upbringing that exposed him to both sides of politics.

After that relatively successful first attempt brought him within a sniff of victory a subsequent boundary redistribution reduced the margin for incumbent Andrew Powell down to just 0.9%.

Mr Hampstead became fully engaged in politics enraged at Tony Abbott and Campbell Newman but had early exposure through a grand father who was a farmer and Country party member with local local government service as a councillor for Caboolture and Laidley shires and through a father who was a union organiser.

An upbringing in a Woodridge Housing Commission home and with a mother who was a nurse also attuned him to difficultiesmany faced to make ends meet.

Since making the decision to get involved he is now a two-time candidate and his wife Christina is the branch president.

Mr Hampstead said and his campaign team relied on direct contact with voters either by phone, door knocking or community barbecues in the absence of a big budget for posters and billboards.

In 2015 the approach delivered a 19% swing to Labor principally because people wanted to be heard.

"Giving a voice to people is the role of a politician,” he said.

And even though it means copping an earful as well as hearing praise he said the approach was important to gain feedback.

"We won't match every LNP funding commitment,” Mr Hampstead said. "Labor will deliver good, steady government and restore more police, health, doctors and education jobs as well as the public servants who support them.”

He accepts the arguments from Rail Back on Track organiser Robert Dow that North Coast rail duplication would improve services to the Sunshine Coast even without the express links to the city that Labor says can't be accommodated before Cross River Rail adds capacity to the network.

But Mr Hampstead defends Labor's decision not to proceed as initially planned in 2009 because of the impacts of the global financial crisis.

And he said he was confident if Infrastructure Australia recommended funding the project a Labor state treasurer would find the money to contribute its share.

HOW TO VOTE CARD: Hampstead (Labor) 1, Sue Weber (Green) 2, Sue Mureau (Ind) 3, Powell (LNP) 4, Bell-Henselin (PHON) 5.