"There are clearly two Queenslands," he wrote on Twitter. "The case for a separate North Queensland state is strong after tonight."

The tweet was accompanied by a map depicting the section of Queensland north of Gladstone separating from the mainland.

If that message wasn't clear, by the next day, he had honed his umbrage down to a blunt apology, telling One Nation voters, that he was "sorry" that the LNP and particularly, the Turnbull government had "let you down".

Among all the predictions of seats won and lost, and any potential implications from the Queensland state election, an admittedly perverse eventuality had escaped consideration.

That is, Pauline Hanson's One Nation falling well short of its target haul of 10 for seats, yet still managing to send shockwaves all the way from Queensland's bedraggled regions to the leafy avenues of Wentworth - the Prime Minister's harbourside electorate.

It did this by securing a healthy 13.7 per cent of the primary vote statewide courtesy of a 12.8 per cent swing - much of that from the LNP, which crashed by 7.8 per cent, to just 33.5 per cent.

A rare occurrence - an opposition party, rather than a government, suffering a massive protest vote.

Labor also struggled, securing just 36 per cent (down 1.6 per cent) but it rose much higher on Greens preferences in the south-east and, as Attorney-General George Brandis lamented bitterly in the Senate, on preferences from One Nation in some key contests.

As the member for the federal seat of Dawson, Mr Christensen is on the frontline of the LNP's erosion and has not hidden that he shares many One Nation's values. In this he differs from the other LNP George, Senator Brandis, who pointedly said flirting with the right-wing protest party was "poison".

Mr Christensen's frustration at the city-centric cosmopolitanism of the Coalition federally is well known. But how that frustration will play out is less clear.

The prospect of him crossing the floor to support a banks inquiry along with another Queensland LNP member, Wide Bay MP Llew O'Brien, has become virtually certain.

Bringing the banks to heel has become a totemic cause for many voters who see them as the embodiment of untouchable corporate insensitivity, and who view the government's trenchant defence of them as part of the problem.

For Mr Turnbull, this spells trouble as early as next week. Beyond that, some have even used the "d" word, defection, if Mr Christensen believes he must change parties, or more likely, become an independent, to hold his seat.

Many Nats believe the 2008 amalgamation, which they had entered as the senior party, has failed. Most accept that undoing that is impractical but there is a wide recognition that being seen to be under the Liberal thumb is a gift to One Nation. They warn to expect a clearer distinction in policy and presentation in future.

For senior lecturer in politics at Queensland's Griffith University, Paul Williams, the election "underscored the divide between inner and middle capital city suburbs on the one hand, and urban fringes, regions and rural Australia on the other".

"While the old regional National party wing of the LNP lost far more to One Nation than the southeast Liberal wing, old Nationals will blame urban Liberals for the loss of seats in Brisbane and on the Gold and Sunshine Coast, and especially for the preference decision itself that saw moderate voters shift to Labor. These tensions will inevitably raise (if not immediately) questions about how a possible de-merger, with a stand-alone National party spruiking 'country values', can corral regional voters away from One Nation," he says.

And Dr Williams says, these tensions will also spill over to the federal joint party room before long.

While a Galaxy poll published on Friday suggested Labor's Annastacia Palaszczuk would hang on thanks to a 52-48 lead, the idea that One Nation would cut such a swathe through the Liberal-National Party, while crashing itself, has caught many off-guard.

Mr Christensen aside, probably the two unhappiest people on Saturday night were the LNP leader Tim Nicholls, and Ms Hanson, whose party looks to have secured just a single seat - that of Mirani.

Malcolm Turnbull made his own feelings clear on Monday and they were starkly different to the appeasings of Mr Christensen. He told rebellious conservatives they had cut off their nose to spite their face.

"Voting for One Nation, as we've seen in the Queensland election, has only benefited Annastacia Palaszczuk and the Labor Party," he said, with a clarity that had mysteriously eluded Mr Nicholls throughout his campaign.

Labor insiders were agreeably aghast at the LNP approach to One Nation, describing its decision to put the minor party ahead of Labor in 50 out of 61 seats - for literally nothing in return - as a crucial error of both tactics and values.

Labor's Milton Dick, who holds the federal seat of Oxley, where Ms Hanson made her first foray into national politics, said the LNP campaign was punished for taking what he called "an unprincipled stance" and for looking like it was part of some kind of undisclosed arrangement.

"When you support a party that doesn't share mainstream values, these are the consequences for the Liberal Party, they will be punished ... if this isn't a wake-up call to Malcolm Turnbull and the Liberals, I don't know what is," he said.

Dr Williams agreed the optics of the One Nation preference arrangement worked against the LNP, offering a powerful lesson for Mr Turnbull.

"The federal Coalition must surely now know, after the West Australian and Queensland experiences, that preference 'arrangements' of any kind with One Nation turns off the 80 to 90 per cent of Australians who reject One Nation's values," he says.

Mr Christensen aside, Nationals in Canberra were playing down the implications nationally. Privately however, they are critically aware of how easily One Nation has exposed the LNP's weakest point - its unconvincing city-country dualism.

The wisdom of Labor's approach was that it ensured the One Nation factor hit the LNP from both sides. By declaring itself above any deals, Ms Palaszczuk manouevred Mr Nicholls into either matching her declaration, or fudging. He chose the latter. Thus the LNP, which was already bleeding votes to One Nation in the regions, also lost votes on its leftward fringe because of its perceived association.

It is a trap Mr Turnbull is alive to.

"If you want to have a Coalition government, then you should vote for the Coalition, vote for the LNP in Queensland, the Liberal Party or National Party elsewhere," he said.

"When we come to the federal election, we will be making that point very, very strongly."