Voting pact on the cards as Katter fails to gain traction

BOB Katter is struggling to translate a stellar profile in his home state of Queensland into support for his start-up party.

All aboard KAP

BOB Katter is struggling to translate a stellar profile in his home state of Queensland into support for his start-up party, with Newspoll giving it only 4.8 per cent of the base vote.

The finding will be a disappointment for Katter's Australian Party as it vies to establish itself as a third force in politics at the March 24 election, and use that as a platform to launch nationally.

It will tempt Mr Katter to shift position on preferences and look to cut deals with the major parties to boost KAP's chances of defying the state-wide trend and pick up seats in the regions.

A special analysis of the Newspoll, exclusive to The Weekend Australian, found that about a third of those who said they would not vote for the major parties or the Greens had plumped for KAP.

The party's modest 4.8 per cent primary vote will puncture expectations whipped up by Mr Katter that it could reprise the shock 1998 state election result that delivered Pauline Hanson's One Nation 23 per cent of the vote and 11 seats.

The Greens have opened the door to limited preference swaps with KAP, which will detail its approach tomorrow after Premier Anna Bligh goes to the governor to dissolve state parliament and get the campaign under way.

Greens co-founder Drew Hutton has urged both minor parties to set aside differences on gay marriage and other social issues to turn the poll into a referendum on coal-seam gas development. While the Greens have ruled out statewide preference deals, spokeswoman Libby Connors said individual branches would be free to bargain with Mr Katter.

Mr Hutton ran the Greens' negotiations with the ALP at the 2009 Queensland election to deliver preferences to Labor in 14 seats, but has since quit the party to focus on the Lock the Gate protest movement against CSG.

In the process, the one-time anarchist became an unlikely ally of Mr Katter and KAP state leader Aidan McLindon, who share the Greens' opposition to CSG.

All three men are expected to march at an anti-mining rally on the Darling Downs on Monday, along with Sydney radio identity Alan Jones and Greens Queensland senator Larissa Waters.

Mr Hutton sees a potential preference deal as potent in regional seats where locals fear CSG and other mining.

He has singled out rural and regional seats such as Nanango, Beaudesert, Mount Isa and Dalrymple -- KAP priorities. Mr Katter's son, Robbie, is seen to have the best chance in Labor-held Mount Isa, which is contained by his father's federal seat of Kennedy. LNP sources are adamant they have KAP's measure in the other seats. "Neither party is going to get candidates elected without a good preference flow from the other," Mr Hutton said.

"I can't see too many KAP candidates getting elected in the bush without preferences from the Greens and Greens getting in in the city without the KAP."

Ms Connors said that while there was a gulf between the parties on social issues, it was possible individual Greens candidates would make arrangements with the KAP.