If the pundits' most pessimistic predictions are correct today could be the first time since the end of the White Australia policy in the 1960s when a party advocating racially divisive views gained a foothold in mainstream politics.
The latest polls give Ms Pauline Hanson's anti-immigration One Nation Party up to 42 per cent support in one seat in the Queensland election and an average 27 per cent of the vote across three others. Forecasts have One Nation candidates taking between one and nine seats in the 89-seat house which means the fledgling party, allegedly linked with right-wing extremists, could hold the balance of power in a hung parliament.
Two million Queenslanders go to the polls today after a campaign between the ruling coalition and opposition Labor Party which has focused almost exclusively on the rise and rise of One Nation. Both sides have ruled out any deals with the party.
But there have been damaging rows about how all sides will direct crucial preferences under the state's compulsory optional preferential system. The Prime Minister, Mr John Howard, has appealed to people who vote One Nation first to give their preferences to the coalition. Mr Howard, who recently called Ms Hanson "deranged", also began to woo her supporters who he said mainly lived in country areas and were aged over 50.
"They're attracted to simplistic, apparently easy, overnight solutions and they are also sometimes attracted by a view of life that tries to blame one or other group for their difficulties," he said.
"Now what I believe one should do is try and talk to those people." The outcome of the election, which could be known tonight, has implications for the rest of Australia just when Mr Howard decides to go to the country to back his stand on reining-in Aboriginal land rights.