Inside a Logan auditorium that usually hosts church services, Campbell Newman is trying to stage a political resurrection.
It's a Saturday afternoon in late April and the former Brisbane lord mayor and one-time premier who is seeking to be senator enters the Liberal Democrats official Queensland federal election campaign launch to applause and calls of "Hello, Newman".
Some of the crowd are holding signs printed with the same phrase – a line made famous by Jerry Seinfeld in his long-running sitcom, where he greets his nemesis, Newman, in a disdainful tone.
The party's candidate for the seat of Ryan, Damian Coory, tells the crowd: "There are not too many people in the world like my friend, Campbell Newman."
"There aren't too many people I know who would serve their country in uniform, serve their country in business, serve their city as the lord mayor, serve their state as premier, and then as a successful business person nearing retirement age, sorry mate, step back into the lion's den as a political outsider because they actually care more about the country than their own career and actually want to serve," he said.
Mr Newman is among a bevy of high-profile candidates vying for a seat in the Senate, including mining magnate Clive Palmer, One Nation's leader Senator Pauline Hanson, and LNP frontbencher Amanda Stoker.
Three Senate seats at play
ABC election analyst Antony Green said this year's half-Senate election was interesting due to the number of parties competing for the conservative seats.
"The difficulty under the new Senate system when that happens is that these parties may compete [against] each other and then preferences don't flow between them," he said.
"At the last election a large number of preferences exhausted as each of these parties was excluded."
He said, while six Senate seats are up for election in Queensland, only three are considered to be in play.
"There are three seats that are certain in Queensland," Green said.
"Two for the LNP, which is Matt Canavan and James McGrath, and one for the Labor Party, which is Murray Watt."
Of the remaining three seats, he said Senator Hanson stood a good chance of regaining one for One Nation.
"The two up for grabs, they'll either go to the left, which will elect Labor's Anthony Chisholm and the Green's Penny Allman-Payne," he said.
"If they only have enough for one seat on the left, it will be a competition between Anthony Chisholm and Penny Allman-Payne, with Labor probably slightly favoured if their vote recovers from the last election.
"That'll leave the last seat to be a competition between Amanda Stoker, Clive Palmer and Campbell Newman."
University of Queensland political scientist Glenn Kefford believed the LNP and Labor were each likely to retain two Senate seats, the Greens to gain one, and the final Senate spot to potentially be a contest between Ms Hanson and probably Ms Stoker "with a few wildcards thrown into the mix".
"I'd say that they [Clive Palmer and Campbell Newman] are outside chances. I don't think their chance of success is all that high," he said.
"The name recognition that Pauline has is enormous in Queensland and it's widespread, and we know that One Nation is going to do very well in a range of sort of 10 to 20 per cent in a whole range of electorates … so you would think that would put Ms Hanson at the front of the line for the right-wing minor parties.
"[She] probably is the likeliest to take that sixth Senate seat, so the current Senator Amanda Stoker might miss out."
LNP frontbencher may miss out
Senator Stoker is conscious of the challenge.
"It's a tough spot to be in and I take nothing for granted," she said.
"What I think is really important for people to understand is that if they want someone who can deliver, then they need to support a party of government."
A senator since 2018, Ms Stoker has served as Assistant Minister for Women, Industrial Relations, and Assistant Minister to the Attorney-General, and has faced criticism for speaking at anti-abortion March for Life rallies.
"It's really important that we support and assist people who are vulnerable, no matter what walk of life they come from, that's a principle that underpins everything I do," she said.
She cites the economy, national security, and defending "freedoms and liberties" as key issues.
Freedom is a campaign theme among some of her Senate race competitors.
Mr Newman – who quit the LNP last year, saying the political wing had "failed" to stand up for the party's core values – hit out at vaccine mandates, surveillance, and "government by diktat" during his campaign launch speech.
"We can continue to support major party duopoly in this country who are so close together now there's barely any daylight between them in terms of policy, or we can transform our politics," he told the crowd.
"Australians have been encouraged to believe not just by the Greens, not just by the Labor party, but by Scott Morrison himself that government not only has all the money but it has all the answers and we say 'no, that is wrong'.
"The Liberal Democrats are the original freedom party … We believe in small government, individual freedom, personal responsibility, balanced budgets, lower debt and lower taxes."
Senate count will take weeks to finalise
While Labor got "clobbered" in Queensland at the 2019 election, Senator Watt is confident that, due to their efforts, the party's vote will recover in the Senate this year and they will at least hold two seats.
"We're going to give it a red-hot go to get that third one as well," he said.
"When Albo and Labor talk about having cheaper childcare, cheaper power bills, making us a renewable energy superpower, making things here again – all of those kind of policies, I think, appeal to people in all sorts of different parts of the state.
"That's why I'm very hopeful about our Senate vote recovering strongly."
The Greens' lead candidate – regional teacher Penny Allman-Payne – is similarly confident of securing a Senate spot and joining Senator Larissa Waters.
"Queenslanders want real action on climate, they want dental into Medicare, and they want action on the housing affordability crisis," she said.
"We've found that the fact the Greens are running a regional teacher from Gladstone in this Senate campaign has been resonating really well in the regions."
However, Antony Green said Senate results would not be known on election night.
"And to be honest it will take four to five weeks to finalise the count.
"Queensland may be a very slow count, as with preferences potentially being important, there will be a lot more scrutineering of the ballot papers."
The six elected senators will join their colleagues in the chamber at the start of July.
