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The Greens will have a permanent presence in north Queensland if it won a second Senate seat at the federal election, with Andrew Bartlett committing to move north should his bid for a return to the upper house be successful. Mr Bartlett, a former Democrats leader in the Senate, will be second on the Greens' ticket on July 2, behind sitting Queensland Senator Larissa Waters. Despite living in Brisbane all his life, Mr Bartlett said he would relocate to north Queensland should he be elected a Greens senator. "Having represented Queensland before, it's a bloody big state," he said. "I wouldn't be suddenly pretending I was a local or anything like that. "This is about more effectively connecting with the communities up there and enabling them to have input, and for the issues in that part of the state to be better understood. "… It's about, if the party was to get that second seat, how could we be most effective with it?" But first, Mr Bartlett said, he had an election to win. "A key part of what we're trying to emphasise in terms of the Senate contest is that it's a real chance for the Greens to have a second Queensland seat and that provides an opportunity for a stronger parliamentary presence," he said. "It's a stronger opportunity for the Greens to work with the community on issues we believe are crucial for the state and I think we can do that more effectively if we spread those two senators across both ends of the state." In keeping with his superstitious nature when discussing unresolved matters of democracy, Mr Bartlett said he would not nominate a north Queensland base until after the election. "This is just part of walking the talk, if you like, but it's certainly not assuming anything," he said. "The voters need to decide if having two Greens senators is a good idea, for starters. "If they decide that, then I'll narrow it down from there, but I won't be thinking about that at all, unless it becomes something I need to think about." Mr Bartlett served as a Democrats senator for more than a decade between 1997 and 2008, including a stint as leader between 2002 and 2004. He replaced Cheryl Kernot as a Queensland senator, when Ms Kernot's defection to the Labor Party to run for the lower house seat of Dickson created a casual Senate vacancy. In 2009, Mr Bartlett joined the Greens and ran for the seat of Brisbane in the 2010 federal election and sought the Brisbane lord mayoralty for the party in 2012. The Greens are confident of picking up an extra Queensland Senate position in July, particularly in a double dissolution election, in which all 12 seats will be up for grabs. The Greens' Brisbane lord mayoral candidate at the 2015 council election, Ben Pennings, will be third on the party's Queensland Senate ticket.

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