Pauline Hanson's shock Australian election success could damage tourism, keep away students and hurt investment, the country was warned yesterday. Ms Hanson's One Nation party won one-quarter of the votes in Saturday's Queensland state election, meaning it could finish with 13 of the 89 state Parliament seats. Although the final result will not be known for at least a week, political analysts were predicting a narrow Labor win - and big losses for Australia. A triumphant Ms Hanson declared: 'There has never been an alternative party to vote for - now they have it in One Nation.' The scale of her support will almost certainly delay Prime Minister John Howard's plans to call an early general election. 'There are clear lessons to be learnt from the result,' he said. Chief among them was the possibility that Ms Hanson's party could hold the balance of power at both the federal and state level, and with it the power to block unpopular legislation. But it is the social and economic implications that are Australia's greatest worry. The tourism industry, battered by falling numbers because of the Asian financial meltdown, fears the One Nation factor will now have an even greater impact. Democratic Party former legislator and Australian citizen Dr Huang Chen-ya said: 'I think it will affect people's concept of Australia. No one's going to spend money going to Queensland to be insulted and threatened.' The Frontier leader Emily Lau Wai-hing, who was in Australia when Ms Hanson made her first anti-Asian parliamentary speech in 1996, said the result confirmed her worst fears. 'Lots of people here have friends and relatives there, or may have been thinking of emigrating or studying - it will attract a lot of concern, if not alarm,' she said. The head of the Australian Chamber of Commerce predicted students and tourists could stay away. Matthew Cheng Chiu-min said: 'If people think they're going to be physically threatened, of course they're not going to go there.' But he said trade would not be hit 'because racism has never stopped anyone doing business'. Ms Hanson wants drastic restrictions on immigration, particularly by Asians, whom she accuses of forming ghettos and not assimilating into Australian society. The Australian dollar, which has been hit because of its link to Asian currencies, is in danger of dropping further, forcing up interest rates. Financial analysts warned foreign investment could be hit. And hopes for reconciliation between white Australians and the country's indigenous people also dipped. Ms Hanson, who also wants cuts in Aboriginal welfare spending and changes to native title legislation, believes all Australians should be treated equally. Aboriginal groups yesterday labelled One Nation's success a disaster. The main political parties, which lost many of their traditional supporters to Hanson candidates, are now faced with the choice of changing their policies or watching their dwindling popularity fade further. The conservative National Party was yesterday urged to adopt some of One Nation's policies. At its New South Wales annual conference, MP John Sharp said the Queensland election had demonstrated a backlash against multiculturalism.
