Pauline Hanson expected to become independent senator

QUEENSLANDERS are expected to once again have a chance to vote for Pauline Hanson thanks to a change in the voting system, and both major parties admit they have little chance of stopping her.

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PAULINE Hanson’s chances of securing a Senate seat in Queensland have increased and both major parties admit they have little chance of stopping her.

The controversial anti-immigration former MP stands her best chance of returning to Parliament thanks to the lower bar needed to win in a double dissolution election combined with a new Senate voting system that will disadvantage micro parties.

With Clive Palmer bowing out of the race for the Senate, Ms Hanson now only has to battle with Glenn Lazarus to pick up the conservative protest vote in Queensland.

Labor and LNP strategists both concede Ms Hanson is likely to pick up the last Senate seat in Queensland, where she could share the balance of power after the election.

“The Liberal and Greens changes to Senate voting, together with a double dissolution, have made it easier for Pauline Hanson to win a Senate spot,” Labor’s Queensland state secretary Evan Moorhead said.

A senior LNP source said Ms Hanson’s appeal could be larger than expected because many people were too ashamed to admit they would vote for her when surveyed for opinion polls.

The LNP has drawn up a Senate campaign plan to try to prevent Ms Hanson’s political return.

A series of road trips by LNP senators through regional areas will aim at countering Ms Hanson’s message and reaching out to disgruntled conservative voters.

Backbench LNP senators Ian Macdonald and Joanna Lindgren will play a heavy role in the campaign but the Government’s most senior representative in the state, George Brandis, will also be involved.

Ms Hanson, who has been planning her return to Canberra for almost two decades, just missed out on winning the seat of Lockyer at the Queensland election last year.

The controversial figure is expected to emerge as an independent senator.

She has spent the past two weeks touring Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania to campaign with her federal candidates.

But she will return to Queensland on Friday and plans to stay in the Sunshine State, which she says is her main focus.

She is planning a scare campaign based on opposition to refugees and limits on foreign investment, claiming her past complaints and predictions about immigration have “come true”.

After multiple failed attempts to re-enter Federal Parliament or become a state MP, Ms Hanson reckons she will be the big winner from a new voting system designed to stop micro parties winning with a fraction of the vote.

“It’s actually in my favour,” Ms Hanson told The Courier-Mail.

“Previously the major political parties never preferenced me. This time the preferences belong to voters.”

Ms Hanson said both major parties “colluded” to block her return to Parliament by preferencing her last.

Under the new optional preferential voting system, group voting tickets are banned and voters must allocate their own preferences if they vote for a party above the line.

A well-known candidate such as Ms Hanson is more likely to have a higher portion of the vote and could win with a smaller portion of the vote.

Pauline Hanson campaigns in Launceston Tasmania.

The normal quota of votes needed to win a Senate spot is halved to 7.7 per cent in a double dissolution and the last spot could be won with less than 5 per cent.

Despite her disdain for major parties’ preference deals, Ms Hanson has been quietly courting support from other candidates.

She has struck a deal with the extreme right Rise Up Australia Party and is in discussions with “a couple of the other minors” including Bob Katter.

But she has ruled out a deal with Glenn Lazarus after she met him and his wife Tess to discuss a plan to work together. Ms Sanders-Lazarus last night defended the talks with Ms Hanson, saying “many of the minor parties are talking and working together” because they did not want “major parties to have full control of the Parliament”.

Speaking from Tasmania, Ms Hanson said she had not discussed preferences with Jacqui Lambie but said the former PUP senator was someone she could work with.

However, she was scathing about Nick Xenophon, accusing him of “sheer arrogance” for saying he refused to work with her.

Ms Hanson said she was funding her campaign by herself and rejected claims she has pocketed taxpayer funded campaign allowances.

“Let’s just say I have been a very smart businesswoman in my past. I’m funding all this myself,” she said.

Her spokesman James Ashby, who is facing an investigation over claims he leaked the diary of former speaker Peter Slipper, said he was working for Ms Hanson for free.

Originally published as Pauline Hanson expected to become independent senator