Former Queensland premier Peter Beattie sees many parallels between One Nation's rise in 1998 and resurgence in 2017. Credit:Robert Shakespeare "This will be hand-to-hand combat in all those seats." A Galaxy poll published in News Corp on Saturday showed One Nation support had reached 23 per cent in Queensland, from a base of next to nothing. One Nation polled just 0.92 per cent of primary votes at the 2015 state election. It came after a turbulent week for the resurgent party, following Callide candidate Elise Cottam's disendorsement for failing to pay party fees.

Mr Beattie said despite its issues with candidates, One Nation appeared to be a better oiled machine in 2017 than it was in the 1990s. Pauline Hanson during the 1998 Queensland state election campaign. Credit:Steve Holland "They're out disendorsing candidates and taking a much harder line, so they're a lot more disciplined now than they were in 1998 and that is a significant difference," he said. Despite the resurgence and an expectation that One Nation was set to perform well at the next Queensland state election – possibly even holding the balance of power in a hung Parliament – Mr Beattie said the major parties need only look to the past for comfort. When Mr Beattie defeated the Rob Borbidge-led Coalition government in 1998, 11 One Nation MPs joined the new Labor government as cohorts in the Queensland Parliament.

Mr Beattie was only able to form government with the support of independent MP Peter Wellington. "What happened in 1998 was both sides of politics were unpopular and, as a result, One Nation set off that," he said. "People were basically registering a protest vote with One Nation and that's why they won 11 seats." Mr Beattie said his Labor government was able to "pull them back" by running a positive strategy in regional Queensland. That included holding community cabinet meetings in those communities.

"We went into each electorate and talked to each community" Mr Beattie said. "We started in the One Nation seat of Mulgrave (now held by Labor Treasurer Curtis Pitt) because we wanted to engage people." At the next election, in 2001, One Nation was reduced to just three seats. Mr Beattie said then, as now, people were worried about employment prospects. "That's a post-mining boom thing now, but then people were concerned about unemployment, which is why we had a number of regional infrastructure projects that were constructed to drive jobs," he said.

"If you go to Cairns, you'll see the Esplanade; in Townsville, you'll see the Strand; you'll see all sorts of work right across the state, where we actually invested in jobs in the regions." The other thing that helped Labor then, Mr Beattie said, was that One Nation "basically imploded". That was a part of history less likely to repeat, he said. "I think they're a lot more disciplined this time than they were last time, but the major parties can still tackle the One Nation support base provided there are two clear rules," Mr Beattie said. "One is, don't attack Pauline Hanson personally. Every time the major parties do that, it increases her support. "The second way is to deal with the issues that she's raising. That is jobs, security, job security and opportunities in the regions.

"She's talking about these things now, so the only way to do it is to be positive, don't attack her personally and come up with a jobs agenda, a strategy that creates jobs and opportunities, particularly in the post-mining boom in the regions." As for the how the 2017 state election would pan out, Mr Beattie said it was still too early to judge, particularly with the reintroduction of compulsory preferential voting. That was a system Mr Beattie said he still opposed. "It all comes down to one issue – will One Nation give their preferences to the LNP and will the LNP give their preferences to One Nation?" he said. "In 1998, the Labor Party on my insistence put One Nation last and then (Nationals senator) Ron Boswell and Tony Abbott in the Liberal Party argued strongly that they put One Nation last.

"So One Nation was choked of preferences because we both put them last, yet they still won 11 seats. "The big game-changer between now and 1998 is Gary Spence, the president of the LNP, has said that they'll put Labor and the Greens last. Loading "What that means in terms of preferences, I don't know." Comment was also sought from former Queensland Coalition premier Rob Borbidge.