Labor strategists are planning to delay the next state election in Queensland until 2018 to give One Nation time to "implode", following the party's disastrous weekend showing in Western Australia.
As One Nation and the Liberal Party grapple with the aftermath of Labor's thumping victory in the WA poll, federal Liberal MP Andrew Hastie has also made a significant intervention, warning his home state could no longer be taken for granted by the Turnbull government and its share of the GST must be increased.
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Nicholls open to preference deals
Tim Nicholls won't rule out an LNP preference deal with One Nation, saying the decision will be made on a "seat by seat basis". Nine News
The decision to do a preference deal with One Nation angered some Liberal moderates, who claim it cost the party votes and damaged its brand. While some serving and former Liberal MPs have said the party should not enter into future deals with One Nation, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has not ruled out a future preference deals in Queensland, where Pauline Hanson and her party are polling strongly.
Liberal officials say the WA deal was necessary to help save seats, and claim the preference deal had actually hurt One Nation more because the party was seen to be working with established party and lost its "outsider" tag.
In Queensland, the WA result has been watched closely by the state Labor government, which must go to the polls by May 2018.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk had looked likely to call an election for late 2017 but party strategists said the WA result - and a series of mistakes by Senator Hanson and her candidates - meant February 2018 had now firmed as preferred polling date.
"The thinking process is, we give them enough time to do our job for us," one Labor source said. "We let them go and let them implode and let the public see them for what they are. Waiting until early next year does that."
A defiant Senator Hanson said she thought the result was "fantastic" but conceded the preference deal, which she helped orchestrate, may have been a mistake.
"People were supportive and said they wanted to vote for us but said when they heard we were doing preference deals with [the Liberals], they could not vote for us," she told the Seven Network on Monday morning. "That's what I heard."
"They did not tell people that their preferences were going to the Liberal Party as well. They put us last. Their preferences went there before One Nation."
Speaking from Western Australia, Mr Hastie - a rising star whose electorate of Canning recorded a strong One Nation vote compared to the rest of the state - said WA could no longer be taken for granted.
"The GST is such a sore point, we need to resolve that. If there is one take away federally it is that if the Coalition wants to win government we need to carry WA and we need to rethink our strategy," he said.
It has been seen as a blue firewall and it is no longer the blue firewall
"I think we need to drop all assumptions about WA. It has been seen as a blue firewall and it is no longer the blue firewall."
The Queensland Liberal National Party has refused to rule out doing a preference deal with One Nation, instead saying it would examine options on a seat-by-seat basis. Senator Hanson has indicated her party would consider something similar.
One Nation is still expected to do well in its heartland state, with Labor and the LNP worried about outer urban and inner regional seats falling to the Hanson-led movement.
In WA, One Nation chalked up its highest vote share (12.7 per cent) in Moore, an outer metropolitan region north of Perth, and Mandurah, to the south of the capital. The demographics of those seats are similar to some in western Sydney and Melbourne.
One Nation secured an average of 8.1 per cent in seats the party ran candidates in. It is expected to win at least two upper house seats, with the help of Liberal preferences.