Qld election: Please explain where Pauline Hanson is

One Nation matriarch Pauline Hanson has been missing in action throughout the 2020 election despite selecting candidates in 90 seats. So where is she, asks STEVEN WARDILL.

Can someone please explain where Pauline Hanson is?

The flame-haired One Nation matriarch has been missing in action throughout the 2020 election despite selecting candidates in 90 seats.

Palmer and Katter are running high-profile campaigns.

Yet Queensland’s original self-titled political outfit has been almost invisible despite the prospect of a balance-of-power position in the next Queensland Parliament.

There’s been no dramatic entry into this election like there was in 2017 when she was presented with booties for her newborn grandson by Labor’s Jo-Ann Miller. Not much of anything really.

Meanwhile, former One Nation leader Steve Dickson has dusted himself off from his strip club scandal and is running against Hanson in his old stomping ground Buderim between flogging his Untold Story book on Amazon for $43.99.

And former loyal president Jim Savage is savage by name as well as nature these days and is contesting Lockyer as an independent after quitting One Nation in disgust.

Yet despite the wreckage of all those formers behind her, Hanson is still a threat.

One Nation might struggle to reclaim its only state seat, Mirani. The polls might show the party’s support has plummeted. But the rule in Queensland is that you write Pauline off at your own peril.

After preferences, One Nation candidates finished second in 20 seats in 2017. If the party’s vote declines and its preferences get distributed in critical seats like Keppel and Thuringowa, this could significantly benefit the LNP and Katter.

Hanson might be nowhere to be seen. But her influence still looms large at this election.

Originally published as Qld election: Please explain where Pauline Hanson is