'Confronting' Queensland Senate ticket sees far-right on far-left

Far-right fringe parties have dominated the top spots on a “confronting” Queensland Senate ticket in the official Australian Electoral Commission draw.

The far-right Christian conservative Rise Up Australia party ironically took the far-left column-A spot on the Queensland Senate ballot, which is arranged from left-to-right by party according to the draw.

Clive Palmer speaks to media following the 2019 Queensland Senate Ballot draw in Brisbane.Credit: Stuart Layt

Pauline Hanson’s One Nation was drawn for column B, while Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party took column C.

Mr Palmer said his position on the ballot did not matter, because Queenslanders knew what he stood for.

“I’m representing the United Australia Party and the policies it stands for, if [voters] think that’s good for the country they should vote for us,” he said following the draw in Brisbane on Wednesday.

Mr Palmer had been set to run for the north Queensland seat of Herbert, but last week suddenly pulled out of the race to run for the Senate instead, with polls showing he had next to no chance of winning the lower house spot.

The federal Coalition is reportedly courting Mr Palmer’s party for a preference deal in an attempt to squeeze out One Nation.

Mr Palmer said he did not believe a preference deal undercut his key message of being a viable third option for voters fed up with the two major parties.

“There will be preferences; you have to prefer someone to somebody else,” he said.

“We’ll be making our [preference] decision based on what’s best for the country.”

Of the major parties, the Liberal National Party took column D on the ballot, while Labor was allocated column P.

The Greens drew column H, and Senator Larissa Waters said the number of far-right parties on the ballot should make Queenslanders think hard about where they would put their vote.

“It’s very sobering to see a bevy of new right-wing parties, I think a lot of Queenslanders will find that very confronting," Ms Waters said.

“It’s very confronting when you see a ballot paper full of parties who, for example, don’t seem to like people of colour very much, and I hope they go nowhere on polling day, because I think Queenslanders are warmer and more welcoming than that.”

Queensland Greens Senator Larissa Waters says the number of far-right parties on the senate ballot is "confronting".Credit: Stuart Layt

The Queensland Senate battle will likely come down to just one or two spots, with Labor and the LNP all but guaranteed the first four places.

Senator Waters said she believed it would be a fight, especially against the $30 million advertising spend by Mr Palmer.

“We don’t have that money to throw around, and even if we did we wouldn’t use it to spam people’s TVs, we’d invest it in affordable housing, free education and action on climate change,” she said.

“People will simply look at the track record of Mr Palmer, and I can certainly commit to going to Parliament and staying awake in Parliament.”

Ms Waters is contesting the election as an incumbent senator, after having to resign from the Senate during the s44 citizenship crisis, then re-entering the upper house in place of Andrew Bartlett, who had stepped in to take her Senate seat before handing it back to her.

Pauline Hanson’s seat does not come up for election until 2022, however Malcolm Roberts, who was also forced to resign in the s44 furore, is seeking to regain his spot, which was taken by far-right-aligned Fraser Anning.

Senator Anning, who was famously egged by a teenager while making inflammatory comments about the Christchurch massacre, has started his own party, which was drawn in column I between the Greens and Labor.

Child protection advocate Hetty Johnston, who is running as an independent Senate candidate with a central policy of getting a royal commission into the family court system, drew column R.

Voters can choose to vote above the line for whole parties or below the line for individual candidates, of which there are 83 this election.

That’s a return to normal for the state, after a record 112 candidates contested the 2016 Queensland Senate race, a 49 per cent increase from the poll in 2013, which had 82 senate candidates.