freediver: "Recent polling has suggested Ms Hanson is again unlikely to secure a Queensland Senate seat..."

Damn shame - not. Hopefully she'll poll less than the magic percentage and lose her deposit.

Yes, the last Senate seat in Qld will be interesting, and I agree with freediver's most likely predictions.

Oddly enough, I'm assisting the Labor candidate by delivering his HTVS, posters etc to my local polling place. This is partly because he's a friend of mine and that the Greens candidate is somewhat less than inspiring. At any rate, everybody who votes above the line for Labor will vote for Larissa :)

The downside is that it's all a bit quixotic in the Reps - the long serving Nationals seat warmer usually coasts in on over 60% of the primary vote for the electorate.

Anyway, from my perspective this is certainly shaping up to be the most interesting - and potentially positive - election in Oz in years.

Important:
I don`t know whether my eyes deceive me but has anyone else noticed that in the latest televised adverts showing voters how to "correctly" make their mark upon the Ballot Paper,.....it seems that a black-lead pencil attached to a piece of string is being used to mark the Ballot Paper!

I was advised many years ago that the minimum requirement supplied to Voting Booths was an "indelible" (non-removable) lead pencil, which eliminated the "chance" of any alterations being made to the completed Ballot Paper, "somewhere along the line"!

I don`t know whether "indelible" lead pencils are available in the community any more, so I would strongly suggest that ALL voters take along a Biro or Ink Pen to make their mark upon their individual Ballot Papers to ensure that thier vote is not altered or tampered with .....which is easily done when "little old ladies" and the like vote "above the line"!

I am not suggesting that these sort of "irregularities" will occur, however stranger things have happened in the past, such as "disappearing Ballot Boxes" turning up after the results of the Election had been announced, etc.

As this Election is becoming a rather rabid affair between the major parties, I think every effort should be taken to ensure that it is conducted in a lawful manner and all or any opportunities to "fiddle" the system are removed or at least reduced

Actually it's got me wondering. If Labor gets a third seat it may actually reduce the chances of Larissa getting a seat because there will be fewer residual Labor vaotes to pass on to left wing candidates. Labor's third seat may well come at a cost to the Greens/democrats rather than the coalitions. Which would be a shame. I would like to see more minor parties in the Senate. It keeps things interesting.

freediver: "If Labor gets a third seat it may actually reduce the chances of Larissa getting a seat because there will be fewer residual Labor vaotes to pass on to left wing candidates. Labor's third seat may well come at a cost to the Greens/democrats rather than the coalitions."

Spot on - that seems to be exactly what happened. Bugger.

The balance of power will now be shared by the Greens, Xenophon and Fundies First. I suppose it could be worse :)

Additionally, Pauline Hanson got slightly over 4% - so I guess she'll be back again in 3 years to dip her snout once more into the public funding trough.

Tasmania was the only state where Greens will get the 4th seat in addition to 3 Labor. Looks like WA and SA will get 2 labor and one Green. For QLD, NSW and Vic, looks like the Greens will yet again fall just short of a seat, with over 90% of a quota after preferences. I think that is a massive improvement for the Greens. Last time they got less of a quota in QLD, and that was with 0.3 of a quota from Labor.