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Queenslanders will have a record number of Senate candidates to choose from at next month's federal election, following the ballot draw in Brisbane on Friday afternoon.
The white ballot paper for the full Senate election will feature 122 names, 103 of whom would appear in grouped columns for above-the-line voting, which was a 49 per cent increase from the previous poll.
The 2013 Senate paper, by comparison, had 82 candidates put their names forward.
The draw, which took about an hour to conduct, saw the number one position won by the Australian Cyclists Party.
The Australian Labor Party claimed the fourth column, followed by the Liberal Democrats (fifth), the Liberal National Party (seventh), Katter's Australian Party (ninth), Nick Xenophon Team (12th), Family First (20th) and Pauline Hanson's One Nation (24th).
The Palmer United Party (28th), Glenn Lazarus Team (29th) and Jacqui Lambie Network (30th) made for awkward ballot neighbours, given the PUP travails of the past parliamentary term, while the Greens came in second-last place at number 37.
Greens candidate Andrew Bartlett, who hoped to join Queensland Senator Larissa Waters in the upper house, said it could be a good thing for the party to be close to one of the ends of the ballot paper.
"I think once it gets this long, people will go in there knowing what to look for," he said.
"If they want to just randomly plonk a number somewhere, they'll just do that wherever they like.
"But I think when you've got that many choices, people will be looking specifically for who they think is best."
Senator Waters said it would be a tough election and she feared Ms Hanson's potential return to politics.
Ms Hanson stood just metres away as Senator Waters spoke to the media.
"It sends a shiver down my spine that we might see a return of Ms Hanson to politics, 20 years after her first divisive entry," Senator Waters said.
"I think Queenslanders have moved on and I think, clearly, Australians accept that we are a diverse and multicultural society and that makes us so much stronger and sets us up for the future.
"So whilst I applaud anyone putting their hand up for politics, I think that Queenslanders won't endorse that sort of division and hatred towards other human beings.
"We're more grown up than that and we're more warm-hearted than that."
Ms Hanson approached the media huddle, seemingly with the intention to speak, but was led away by her adviser, former Peter Slipper staffer James Ashby.
Australian Liberty Alliance candidate Bernard Gaynor, who like Ms Hanson has campaigned on an anti-Muslim agenda, said the right was on the rise.
Central to the ALA's platform was the banning of the burqa and Mr Gaynor was asked how many he had seen during the campaign in Queensland.
"We haven't seen many at all and we want to keep it that way," he said.
Journalist: "So is this a solution in search of a problem?"
Mr Gaynor: "It is a solution fending off a big problem coming here."
Mr Gaynor said he expected the as-yet untested ALA to do well at the election, saying there had been 20 branches set up across Queensland.
But Mr Gaynor refused to say how many people had joined the party, other than to say it had passed the 500-member threshold for registration.
"We think there will be egg on the faces of the political and media establishment after the election," he said.
The grouped tickets will appear in the following column order on the Queensland Senate ballot paper:
- Australian Cyclists Party
- The Arts Party
- Secular Party of Australia
- Australian Labor Party
- Liberal Democrats
- Online Direct Democracy (Empowering the People)
- Liberal National Party
- Animal Justice Party
- Katter's Australian Party
- Marriage Equality
- Mature Australia
- Nick Xenophon Team
- Pirate Party Australia
- Australian Liberty Alliance
- Derryn Hinch's Justice Party
- Citizens Electoral Council
- Shooters, Fishers and Farmers
- Unendorsed – RIVAS, Sal
- Democratic Labour Party (DLP)
- Family First
- Renewable Energy Party
- Australian Sex Party/Marijuana (HEMP) Party
- VOTEFLUX.ORG | Upgrade Democracy!
- Pauline Hanson's One Nation
- Rise Up Australia Party
- Socialist Equality Party
- Christian Democratic Party (Fred Nile Group)
- Palmer United Party
- Glenn Lazarus Team
- Jacqui Lambie Network
- Australian Progressives
- Australian Christians
- Drug Law Reform
- Health Australia Party
- CountryMinded
- Veterans' Party
- The Greens
- Sustainable Australia
Australian Electoral Commission Queensland officer Thomas Ryan, who conducted the draw, said the 19 ungrouped independent Senate candidates would be listed in the 39th and 40th columns.
A total of 204 candidates will contest Queensland's 30 House of Representatives seats.
