Betting on an election.

This has to be distinct to Australia. The various betting agencies in Australia offer odds on federal elections. Not just which party will win, but you can bet on each individual electorate. This year the election has been a complete shambles. Labor recently ousted the Prime Minister and decided it was time to do to the rest of the resource sector what they did to the Gold mining industry back in the early nineties. (Slap on a 30-40% profits tax.) Not that the tax wasn't a good idea where foreign companies can come into Australia, create a few jobs (good) but effectively strip-mine the country of resources without any real benefit to the nation. Still, the mining companies banded up and launched a hell of an Ad campaign that looked like WorkChoices all over. (If the mining industry tax goes through, lots of people are going to lose their jobs.) Reports came out stating that the tax would have a negative impact on the mining industry.... Well, "Duh". What would you expect their report to say, that the tax wouldn't affect them, hell, take some more of our cash?!

Still, the media effect was bad news for Labor and their effort to convince people that they were willing to negotiate a more fair deal didn't do enough to keep people in their favour. Still, I think the real knife in the back for Labor was the knife that Julia Gillard stuck into Kevin Rudd's back. Labor may have been a bit frustrated that he hadn't been able to sell their policies to the House, and such. He had his party behind him, but unfortunately he didn't hear them sharpening their knives. If the 2nd in command for a party can't be trusted to keep their word when they say they give their full support to the leader, why should they be trusted to lead?

The only reason the Coalition didn't take this election is because they were too stuborn to admit where they'd made serious policy mistakes, and didn't bring in some fresh faces to reflect that they possibly (though probably not) were able to change. I'm sure they still believe that their policies for Work Choices and such are for the best interests of Australia, but it's a hard sell at election time when people see that if they get into power it means they have fewer rights in the workplace and their bosses have more power to exploit them. It's good for business, and over-all good for the economy, but it makes it a lot harder for the common worker.

But I digress. There is really something wrong when people are willing & able to wager on the results of an election. I'm quite surprised that it is actually legal considering there are laws against publicly expressing electorial preference. The government can release preliminary preference poll results, but I'm surprised that betting agencies are allowed to give odds since that could influence people as to how they choose to vote. Not to mention current rumors and accusations in Cricket and the NRL over match fixing after betting anomolies are found.