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Pauline Hanson Adopts Pro-Immigration Hashtag #peopleb4politics For Queensland Election

The background of One Nation's new slogan is pretty un-One Nation.
Pauline Hanson:
Andrew Meares/Fairfax Media
Pauline Hanson:

CANBERRA -- One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has launched her Queensland election campaign on Monday with a champagne start to her party's "Battler Bus" tour of the state's regions.

While a smash of bubbly is a common choice for christening a vessel, the use of champagne fizz in this instance has caught the eye of a few political opponents as being not exactly "battlerish".

The launch of the white and blue bus bearing Hanson's face constitutes a late joining of the Queensland election trail for the senator as she was caught out of the country on a parliamentary trip to India when the Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk called the election.

Hanson confirmed a preference deal with the Katter's Australian Party ahead of Labor and the LNP but would not confirm whether the two parties would vote together as a block in the next state parliament.

"I think it's time for One Nation and honestly I think this is going to be bigger than what it was in 1998," she told reporters in Brisbane before the bus took off.

The Battler Bus also includes a hashtag for people to follow on social media, #PeopleB4Politics.

A quick search of the hashtag did not find a flood of One Nation mentions; rather it has been used in United Kingdom in a campaign to protect the rights of millions of European citizens who live in the UK but will be affected by Brexit.

'The3million' campaign wants EU nationals to maintain their current rights under a withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union.

In particular they want EU nationals to keep the right to bring family members to the UK, including from outside the EU, as now.

No-one owns hashtags and the One Nation "Battler Bus" juggernaut may soon soon take over its use but the anti-immigration populist party is starting the week with a few contradictions.

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