Pauline Hanson rails against compulsory preferential voting

IT COULD have won her a place in the Queensland Parliament, but controversial wannabe politician Pauline Hanson has come out swinging against it.

PAULINE Hanson has railed against the voting system that could have secured her a place in the Queensland Parliament.

While the LNP’s Ian Rickuss narrowly retained the seat of Lockyer by fewer than 200 votes, the story could have been different had compulsory preferential voting been in place.

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Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has come under fire for Labor’s surprise scrapping of optional preferential voting.

Assuming Lockyer electors whose votes were exhausted would have preferenced similarly to those whose votes weren’t exhausted, Labor and Katter’s Australian Party preferences would have helped get Ms Hanson over the line.

But Ms Hanson accused Labor of having “underhandedly taken away the voting rights of the people” over the move.

“I don’t agree with it,” she said.

“You’re forcing people to send their preferences where they don’t want it to go.”

Pauline Hanson at her home in Coleyville southwest of Ipswich. Pic: Annette Dew

Mr Rickuss said the idea that Ms Hanson could have won the seat through compulsory preferential voting was a “big hypothetical”.

“Had this system been in place, the thought of the public might have been different, of course,” he said.

“It is a very hypothetical question.”

Mr Rickuss described the scrapping of optional preferential voting as a “cynical” move.

Ms Hanson said One Nation planned to stand candidates in every seat at the next state election.

But she would not be drawn on whether she planned to recontest Lockyer, should her current Senate bid fail.

“That’s further down the track and I’m running for the Senate in Queensland – my full focus is on that and I’m not going to say ‘OK, I’m jumping here, there and all over the place’ – no,” she said.

“I’m going out now to win the (Senate) seat and I’m determined to win it.”

Originally published as Pauline Hanson rails against compulsory preferential voting