Mettam grew up in Kalgoorlie and Geraldton, moving to Perth to study broadcasting at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts.
Her paternal grandparents were from the United Kingdom, and met on a steamship en route from London to Perth, where her father was born.
[1] Aged 17, Mettam moved to Perth to study at Edith Cowan University's Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, majoring in broadcasting.
[2] They married on 26 August 2000[1] and spent a year in Adelaide so that Jonathan could complete a qualification in winemaking, before moving to Dunsborough, Western Australia, in 2003.
From 1999 to 2001, she was a researcher for Channel 7 Perth's Today Tonight; in 2001 and 2002, she was a bureau producer for Channel 9's A Current Affair in Adelaide; and from 2003 to 2005, she was a producer for ABC South West, which put her in contact with her local member of the state parliament, Troy Buswell, which led to her getting a job working as an electorate officer for Liberal MLC Barry House from 2005 to 2014.
[2] She was also a committee member of the party's campaign for the electoral district of Warren-Blackwood for the 2013 state election and the secretary of the Forrest Division Women in 2014.
[1] Troy Buswell, the Liberal member for the electoral district of Vasse in the Western Australian Legislative Assembly, resigned from his seat on 3 September 2014 due to mental health problems.
[8][9] The Labor Party declined to put up a candidate for the by-election due to Vasse being an extremely safe Liberal seat.
[13] Mettam campaigned on improvements to local health and education due to the region's growing population and protecting natural assets.
[1] As the shadow minister for transport, Mettam criticised time and cost blowouts on Metronet, the government's project to expand and improve Perth's rail network.
[36] On Friday, 27 January 2023, Mettam revealed her intention to challenge Honey for the leadership at a special partyroom meeting the following week.
Honey initially said that he would contest the leadership spill,[40][41] but pulled out on the morning of the partyroom meeting, allowing Mettam to be voted in unopposed.
Thomas had used Burke as a middleman to arrange a meeting with businessman John Poynton to talk about the Bluewaters Power Station in Collie.
[54][55] Tjorn Sibma had also contacted Burke to discuss "electoral, legislative or policy" matters, but Mettam refused to demote him as well.
[64] Polling published by The West Australian newspaper on 26 November 2024 claimed that the Liberal Party faced another landslide defeat in the 2025 state election and that it would fare better if it replaced Mettam as leader with Zempilas.
[79][80][81] After the government selected Webuild as the contractor to build the women and babies hospital in December 2024,[82][83] Mettam declared she would end negotiations with the company if she became premier.
[84][85] In April 2023, Mettam publicly came out in support of the proposed Indigenous Voice to Parliament being advocated by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, which was contrary to the position of the federal Liberal Party, led by Peter Dutton.
[86][87] However by August 2023, Mettam walked back her support for the proposed Indigenous Voice to Parliament indicating her intention to vote no.
Former Liberal minister for Indigenous Australians Ken Wyatt said that her stance was "short-sighted" and "divisive", and pointed out the hypocrisy of Mettam being fine with standing in front of flags with the Union Jack on them.