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One Nation punters are lining up for selfies with cardboard cut-outs of Pauline Hanson at pre-poll booths in Longman at Morayfield, north of Brisbane, after the party leader left her candidate to go overseas on a pre-booked holiday before tomorrow's by-election.
Matthew Stephen, a tiler and One Nation's candidate in Longman, had promised voters they could get a real selfie with Senator Hanson on election day, but had to come up with a plan B.
One Nation printed 50 life-size cut-outs of Senator Hanson and started rolling them out at pre-polling booths today.
The Morayfield polling booth now has 10 of the cut-outs gracing the One Nation campaign tent.
One fell over while Mr Stephen was addressing the media so he rushed to its aid.
"I think she has sea legs but she'll be alright come polling day — it's as good as the real thing," Mr Stephen said.
The by-election was called after former sitting MP, Labor's Susan Lamb, was one of several MPs forced to resign from Federal Parliament because the renunciation of their British citizenship had not been finalised by the close of nominations for the 2016 Federal election.
When 68-year-old Patricia Rogers turned up to vote she was delighted to see Ms Hanson's smiling face.
"I love Pauline — we don't need her here really we have got her here this way," Ms Rogers said.
"She's a strong leader and is at least keeping the other politicians honest."
Mr Stephen said Senator Hanson had approved the photo.
"Everything has to go through Pauline if it has her face on it, so I know she supports it and has warmed to the idea," Mr Stephen said.
He said he was not disappointed Senator Hanson was not here in person to help with his campaign.
"I know Pauline had a holiday booked, she offered to cancel," he said.
"How was she to know Susan Lamb was going to get ousted under section 44 This holiday was planned months and months ago.
"We have an army of Pauline Hansons here, and she'll be on every polling booth, so we encourage people to grab a camera and come down and get a selfie."
Senator Hanson has been on a cruise in Europe this week.
Mr Stephen has been left isolated fighting off allegations that he was a "dodgy tradie", who owed disgruntled contractors tens of thousands of dollars.
He has denied any wrongdoing and said his absent leader was happy with the campaign.
"Extremely important by-election for the country, but Pauline trusts us to hold the fort," Mr Stephen said.
Polls have the One Nation vote hovering around 15 per cent, and the party is preferencing the LNP ahead of Labor.
About 29,000 have already cast their votes in Longman.
Topics: elections, federal-elections, government-and-politics, federal-parliament, one-nation, political-parties, morayfield-4506, brisbane-4000, qld, australia
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