One Nation is considering a plan to place all sitting Queensland MPs last on the party's how-to-vote cards.

Pauline Hanson's chief of staff James Ashby has told the ABC that if they proceed with the plan, both the ALP and the LNP would find themselves in "a dangerous predicament".

Both parties appear to be taking the matter extremely seriously.

Why are One Nation preferences so newsworthy?

There are two reasons.

Preferences used to be optional for Queensland voters, who often therefore did not allocate preferences beyond their first vote.

But full preferential voting is now compulsory, so voters' second and third choices could influence the outcome in many seats.

And One Nation has enjoyed a resurgence in the polls, so the preferences of One Nation voters could be valuable to the major parties.

What can One Nation do with those preferences?

Senator Hanson's party cannot give preferences to any candidate - no party can do that. All it can do is recommend how its supporters allocate their preferences. That's what how-to-vote cards are: recommendations.

Full preferential voting has been made compulsory in Queensland. ( Supplied: LNP )

But if One Nation voters accept the party's recommendation, it seems that sitting MPs from the ALP and the LNP will not get any help from that quarter as One Nation may end up putting every current MP last on its how-to-vote cards.

Of course, that will be only in the seats that One Nation is contesting — the party is not running against the two Katter MPs in north Queensland, nor against Labor's Jo-Ann Miller in Bundamba and the LNP's Mark Robinson in Oodgeroo.

The weird thing is that neither major party wants to be seen courting One Nation anyway, even if they privately hope to benefit somehow. So ironically they'll get what they're publicly declaring: no deals*.

Hopefully this will put to bed all of the stories about who's doing "deals" with One Nation for their preferences.

If One Nation won't recommend preferences to either major party, we can stop writing about negotiations, swaps and deals.

Will One Nation have any influence beyond preferences?

It's possible they could win some seats, according to the polls.

The trouble is, the polls vary. Early this year, One Nation recorded 23 per cent in a Galaxy poll.

Ms Hanson handing out how-to-vote cards on WA election day in March. ( ABC News: Andrew O'Connor )

A few weeks ago, the party recorded 18 per cent support in a ReachTEL poll.

Today, there's an Essential poll giving them 13 per cent.

The other difficulty is those polls measure statewide results, and One Nation could do much better in individual seats.

If that happens, there may be a chance of holding the balance of power, because the other thing that polls suggest is that neither major party at the moment is clear favourite to win a majority in their own right.

We could be headed for another hung Parliament.

Bottom line: the ever-controversial Senator Hanson and her party will stay in the news - until, during and after this most fascinating Queensland election.

*P.S. It didn't work: Labor and the LNP both kept up the One Nation "deal" accusations in Parliament today.