Australian Federal Election 2019 Week 6 ~ Faites Vos Jeux

These are the betting odds for each party as collected by Frogman.
Note that the odds are determined by the betting patterns more than the opinion polls.
Always gamble responsibly.

Party/Bookmaker	Bet365	Bet(easy)	Sportsbet	TAB
Labor	1.25	1.22	1.24	1.22
Coalition	4.00	4.20	4.00	4.00
Hung Parliament ~ NO	1.12	1.18		1.15
Hung Parliament ~ YES	5.50	4.50		5.00

Today is Wednesday the 8th of May 2019 and there are 10 days to go. I will be referring to the two main party leaders as ScoMo (Coalition) and BillS (Labor) as I am bored with typing out their full names.

Friday the Federal election leaders debate was basically a rerun of the previous Mondays debate but this time with more passion.As per usual the worm favoured BillS at 43% to 41%. A bet on BillS is always a win.

Sunday was the official opening of the Labor Party campaign. Many previous PMs were in attendance and even those that hated each other managed to smile and be civil. The most popular speech was by ex PM Paul Keating who was famous for "the recession we had to have". He put his foot in his mouth again by calling ASIO "nutters" amongst other things.

Chris Bowen(Labor) debated with Josh Frydenberg(Coalition) about the upcoming budget and Frydenberg stated categorically that there would be no company tax cuts. Bowen expressed concerns that proposed interest rate cuts showed that the economy was in trouble.Frydenberg gave a no comment response. Incidentally the Reserve Bank left the interest rates on hold.

Most countries have a first past the post voting system and under this system according to the Monday IPSOS figures the Coalition would win by 36% to 33%. The Greens managed 14%, One Nation 5% and Palmer's UAT 3%. Under Australia's preferential voting system it is imperative that both major parties have a preferences deal with the minor parties however distasteful it seems.

I was busy feeling sorry for Tony Abbot (Coalition ~ ex PM) and I gave very little to Pauline Hanson (One Nation) even in spite of her tears. Tony has tried to be a model citizen with his unpaid service with the SES, RFS and RLSA plus his charity bike rides and so on. In spite of this Tony has managed to generate as much hate as Donald Trump. There are a number of people competing for his seat and he had a face-to-face with one, Zali Steggal. You can see a report here.

It becomes obvious that ScoMo should stop being negative about BillS's climate change policies and instead, ignore BillS's and push his own climate solutions as affordable, practical and Australia friendly. Scomo can get more supporters if he just says that he is doing it and doing it cheaper. What ever leader wins Mother Nature still rules.

After a slow start BillS has come out defending Labors policies with the claim that no one can give an honest costing until it is implemented. This may be a good excuse when one is in opposition but it is expected that a rigorous cost analysis is made before what is essentially a new business is allowed to go ahead. Many Australians will remember that a Labor government under Rudd with "the worlds greatest treasurer" Swan turned a huge surplus into a gross debit. The money that is available to be spent is estimated at just under half a trillion Australian dollars.

The Greens have lived up to their poor reputation both as supporters and candidates by attempting to 'egg' ScoMo, and a candidate George Hanna called the Coalition indigenous candidate a 'coconut' (white on the inside and brown on the outside). It can't be long before Penny Wong (Labor) gets called a 'banana'.

Although the Coalition passed legislation to reduce tax dodging by foreign and Australian companies Labor wants to introduce more draconian legislation. Tax dodging by companies is a problem all over the world and the Sydney Morning Herald reviews the Australian tax dodgers here. There is a movement to tax delinquent companies with a 'Gross Receipts Tax'.

Thanks for reading such a dull subject.

About the author:
Over the last half century I have voted for both sides of politics and I even voted for Fred Nile when the other choices piqued me.  I think politicians should have fixed terms and be Australian born, or at least a citizen for 12 years, especially the prime minister. I don’t like political correctness, Marxism or fake news. All of the above probably colours my writing somewhat.

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