How 114 votes could have stopped Pauline Hanson from winning a Senate seat

AFTER eight unsuccessful election campaigns, Pauline Hanson is finally back. But just 114 votes could have changed all that.

Pauline Hanson has returned to politics in a big way. Picture: Dan Peled/AAP

JUST 114 votes could have stopped Pauline Hanson from winning a spot in the Senate.

The One Nation leader is expected to claim a Senate seat in Queensland, along with up to three of her colleagues.

Ms Hanson, who has been more known for her appearance on Dancing with the Stars in recent years, shot to fame with her maiden speech in Parliament in 1996.

Now, Ms Hanson believes as many as six of her party’s Senate candidates could be installed in Parliament once counting is finalised.

Her return is already causing panic, with former Labor foreign minister Bob Carr calling her a “mischievous troublemaker and racist”.

He said Ms Hanson was an “embarrassment” to Australia in Asia.

But it could have been so different for Ms Hanson if she’d only won an extra 114 votes. In last year’s Queensland election, that is.

Ms Hanson narrowly missed out on winning the Brisbane seat of Lockyer last year.

So close, in fact, that after preferences she only lost out to Liberal National MP Ian Rickuss by 0.4 per cent (or 114 votes).

If Ms Hanson had won a seat in the Queensland lower house, it’s unlikely she would have run as number one on the One Nation Senate ticket in last Saturday’s federal election.

Of course, election campaigns are nothing new to Ms Hanson.

Since being elected to federal Parliament in 1996 in the Ipswich seat of Oxley, Ms Hanson has contested a further nine elections. She had been unsuccessful in all of them until Saturday.

More about One Nation’s policies is coming to light after Saturday’s election, but should her strong support in Queensland come as a surprise?

Last year in Lockyer, she polled 26.7 per cent of the first preference vote and had 49.8 per cent after preferences to fall just short.

SENATE VOTING CHANGES MAY HAVE HELPED ONE NATION

When Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull brought in changes to Senate voting earlier this year, it was predicted it would make it harder for smaller parties like One Nation to get senators elected.

The tactic seems to have backfired for Mr Turnbull, who will have an even more difficult Senate crossbench to deal with if he can form government.

But even before the election, Ms Hanson was confident the Senate voting changes would actually help her. And it turned out to be true.

“Previously the Liberals, Nationals and the Greens have always preferenced One Nation last. This gives the preferences back to the voters,” Ms Hanson told news.com.au in April.

Ms Hanson said preferences had always “destroyed” One Nation.

HANSON IS A SERIAL CAMPAIGNER

Ms Hanson is used to election campaigns. But until Saturday, she hadn’t had much success.

Before going within 114 votes last year in Queensland, she contested the 2013 federal election but One Nation only received 1.22 per cent of the vote.

She had gone closer at the 2011 NSW election, when she missed out on an upper house seat despite gaining thousands more primary votes than winning candidates from the Greens and The Nationals.

Following that election, Ms Hanson accused the NSW Electoral Commission of ignoring allegations that “dodgy staff” put 1200 votes for her in a pile of blank ballots.

She launched legal proceedings to challenge the result without success.

Further back, One Nation — which was formed in 1997 — out-polled the Greens and the Australian Democrats at the 1998 federal election.

The party received one million votes for the Senate to win one seat.

‘IT WAS A PERFECT STORM’

Most political experts thought One Nation had slim chances at the federal election.

But as counting continues, One Nation has received more than 4 per cent of votes in the Senate across Australia. In Queensland, the party has received more than 9 per cent.

Political lecturer Paul William at Griffith University told Fairfax, it was a “perfect storm” for Ms Hanson at Saturday’s election.

“Most of her vote comes from people who just think mainstream politicians are all a bunch of crooks and aren’t listening, and Hanson is ‘one of us’,” Dr Williams said.

Originally published as How 114 votes could have stopped Pauline Hanson from winning a Senate seat