Aus: Federal Election 2019 - Page 2 - Politics Forum.org | PoFo

Wandering the information superhighway, he came upon the last refuge of civilization, PoFo, the only forum on the internet ...

Talk about what you've seen in the news today.

Moderator: PoFo Today's News Mods

#15007566
One betting agency was a bit over-confident in a Labour victory. :lol:


Betting agency makes monumental and costly error ahead of election

Days before the votes had even begun being counted, one betting agency made a bold decision. It came back to bite them in a big way. The votes are in and the result has been called with Scott Morrison hanging on as the Coalition claim the Australian election victory. It’s a result that left more than a few Aussies in shock, but none felt the pinch more than betting agency Sportsbet. In a stunningly bold decision, the agency opted to reward Labor punters two days ahead of the votes even being counted. Over $1.3 million was paid out to those who threw money behind Bill Shorten and the Labor Party to salute.



In a release from Sportsbet on Thursday, it detailed the reasoning behind the enormous payout. “Sportsbet punters have declared Saturday’s Federal Election run and won, backing Labor into Winx-like odds of $1.16 with 70% of all money wagered on the election going on Bill Shorten’s team,” the release said. “With punters so confident, Sportsbet has today paid out early on all bets placed on Labor to win Saturday’s vote “Over $1.3 million has been paid out to punters who had a flutter on Labor. “Labor have attracted several large wagers including one savvy punter who walks away with over $128,000 before a vote has been counted.” “Our punters have spoken through their bets! 7 out of every 10 bets on the election are on Labor. They’re supremely confident we will be paying out on Saturday so we have decided to pay them early. “Punters rarely get it wrong on elections,” Sportsbet’s Rich Hummerston said. “Sportsbet’s markets currently suggest Labor will win 82 seats and the Coalition 63.”

As the votes continued to roll in and it became increasingly clear Labor were going to struggle to raise the bat, the agency leaned into the mistake and poked some fun at themselves.



Sportsbet can take solace in knowing its not the only ones out of pocket on the night the votes were counted. An anonymous New South Wales punter was so confident Bill Shorten would end up on top he parted with $1 million on Labor winning. The bet is the largest in Ladbrokes’ history and would have paid out $230,000 if Bill Shorten was announced as the Prime Minister. “We’ve obviously seen some sizable bets come through in recent times, many of them on Winx, but clearly this gentleman thinks the Labor Party is a safer bet than the now retired mighty mare,” said Jason Scott, Ladbrokes Australia Chief Executive. The old saying goes ‘if you don’t laugh, you’ll cry’ which may well be the feelings inside the walls of the Sportsbet offices. For the anonymous punter however, the tears may continue to flow for days on end as he screams to the heavens over Labor’s loss.

#15007570
I was thinking about the apparent blunder and came to the personal conclusion that 1.3 million isn’t that big a deal for bookies :hmm:
#15007595
ness31 wrote:I was thinking about the apparent blunder and came to the personal conclusion that 1.3 million isn’t that big a deal for bookies :hmm:


I suspect they payed early for the publicity. It's a common tactic for agencies to use against other outlets.
#15007619
The day after the election, a fuming Kevin Rudd took to Twitter.

"In all the election commentary last night, not a single word on the elephant in the room," the former prime minister wrote.

"Murdoch, with 70 per cent control of Australia’s print media, ran the single most biased campaign in Australian political history. Reason for the silence? People are in fear of Murdoch’s power."

In addition to its newspapers' front pages and columnists, which were almost uniformly glowing in their praise of Prime Minister Scott Morrison, and in attacking the ALP's policies and leadership, every Murdoch paper editorialised in favour of the Coalition on election eve.

https://www.smh.com.au/federal-election ... 51q0s.html


News Corp's Australian monopoly decided the general election. Most media outlets in the country are controlled or owned by the Murdoch family (Fox News). News Corp's media outlets, including Fox News, are exporting Aussie values to the rest of the world, taking over America and Britain. I think Kevin Rudd was the last decent prime minister for Australia.

Last edited by ThirdTerm on 26 May 2019 19:14, edited 1 time in total.
#15007620
Murdoch took Clive Palmer's money.....

It wasn't because of their specific editorials, but because they naturally gave a well paying advertiser his daily 2-page inside-the-cover commercials.

Clive payed handsomely
#15007707
Nup. The media, specifically Murdoch’s Evil Empire :roll: were pretty even handed in the election. I didn’t see any bias towards either party. It is what it is folks.
#15007728
ness31 wrote:Nup. The media, specifically Murdoch’s Evil Empire :roll: were pretty even handed in the election. I didn’t see any bias towards either party. It is what it is folks.


I saw non-stop full page anti-Shorten advertising. Payed for by Clive. Nothing wrong with it though.
#15007743
Yeah. No idea what the go was with Clive. Ads a plenty and no seat :eh:
#15007748
Somebody like Trump wouldn't last long as a Prime Minister in Australia. However, I think Australia has had something like 6 or 7 Prime Ministers in one year. So, though it's good somebody like Trump wouldn't last as Prime Minister, having something like 6 or 7 leaders in one year is not exactly politically stable either. Ohhh well! No place is perfect is it? You guys have 6 or 7 Prime Ministers in one year and we have Trump.
#15019369
Politics_Observer wrote:Somebody like Trump wouldn't last long as a Prime Minister in Australia. However, I think Australia has had something like 6 or 7 Prime Ministers in one year. So, though it's good somebody like Trump wouldn't last as Prime Minister, having something like 6 or 7 leaders in one year is not exactly politically stable either. Ohhh well! No place is perfect is it? You guys have 6 or 7 Prime Ministers in one year and we have Trump.


While it is disturbing, there's no change in policies anyway so doesn't make that much difference. May in the UK about to be replaced. There won't be a change in policies, just a different reactionary fuckhead going to fuck over the British people including Tory voters!
#15019529
@redcarpet

redcarpet wrote:While it is disturbing, there's no change in policies anyway so doesn't make that much difference. May in the UK about to be replaced. There won't be a change in policies, just a different reactionary fuckhead going to fuck over the British people including Tory voters


I believe that now! One of my English friends told me how the working people (meaning working class down to the very poor) in the UK have been having serious problems much like here in the US and an Australian friend told me that unions have all but disappeared in Australia much like the US despite the fact that Australia is known for it's progressiveness. So, despite the way the systems operate, the UK and Australia are essentially facing the same problems as we are in the US.
#15019542
Politics_Observer wrote:Somebody like Trump wouldn't last long as a Prime Minister in Australia. However, I think Australia has had something like 6 or 7 Prime Ministers in one year. So, though it's good somebody like Trump wouldn't last as Prime Minister, having something like 6 or 7 leaders in one year is not exactly politically stable either. Ohhh well! No place is perfect is it? You guys have 6 or 7 Prime Ministers in one year and we have Trump.


Actually it was 5(technically 6, but Rudd returned) different Prime Ministers in a decade. Rudd-Gillard-Rudd(again)-Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison.

"7 Prime ministers in one year" is an exaggeration.

Previous to this Australia had a long period of political stability with only 4 Prime Ministers since the beginning of the 1980s. Fraser-Hawke-Keating-Howard.
#15019567
@colliric

colliric wrote:Actually it was 5(technically 6, but Rudd returned) different Prime Ministers in a decade. Rudd-Gillard-Rudd(again)-Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison.

"7 Prime ministers in one year" is an exaggeration.

Previous to this Australia had a long period of political stability with only 4 Prime Ministers since the beginning of the 1980s. Fraser-Hawke-Keating-Howard.


Thank you for setting the record straight. So, I guess this particular Australian simply gave me bad information or was simply exaggerating (We had this particular conversation on Facebook so it was hard to tell if he was exaggerating or being straight up). Should have done my own research on it than to have taken his word. I guess you have to be careful whose word you take on such matters. You would think people would be straight up on something like that and have their facts together and you can take the word of somebody when they talk about their own country but I guess you have to be careful who you believe. Sometimes Australians like to joke around and exaggerate. He told me you guys have compulsory voting unlike here in the US and UK. I did some research on my own in that regard and it appears that you guys do indeed have compulsory voting. Another thing he told me was that a "Dog's Eye" was a meat pie in Australian slang and "Dead Horse" was sauce.
#15019573
Politics_Observer wrote:@colliric
Thank you for setting the record straight. So, I guess this particular Australian simply gave me bad information or was simply exaggerating. Should have done my own research on it than to have taken his word. I guess you have to be careful whose word you take on such matters. Sometimes Australians like to joke around and exaggerate. He told me you guys have compulsory voting unlike here in the US and UK. I did some research on my own in that regard and it appears that you guys do indeed have compulsory voting. Another thing he told me was that a "Dog's Eye" was a meat pie in Australian slang and "Dead Horse" was sauce.


He's from Adelaide most likely, that's South Australian slang from memory. A meat pie is called a "Four-'n-Twenty" in slang in Victoria because that's the name of the classic brand sold at Aussie Rules Football Matches, and Aussie Rules was invented in Victoria, but it's also local slang for any brand of Meat Pie. Ketchup is called "Tomato Sauce" and just "Sauce" in Australia, but once again mostly refered to in local slang by the brandname.

Dead Horse can also refer to a Meat Pie itself in some parts of the country. Because of cause even though it's meant to be 100% beef, who knows what's really in the cheaper Homebrand stuff!!! Lol.

Heinz, Masterfoods and Rosella are the most popular sauce brands.

Although voting is compulsory in Australia, this does not mean you must actually cast a vote. It means you must have your name signed off on the electoral role somehow(usually by turning up in person at a polling booth or registering for a Postal Vote, then posting back the Registration form and unmarked ballots). You don't have to actually vote for anyone if you don't want to.

If you don't sign off, they send you a please explain notice. If you say "because I am diametrically politically opposed to compulsory Voting" they'll probably let you off the hook, otherwise you'll be fined $80 AUD, more of an annoyance than anything else.

Some classic ads:





Rabbit food, again!
#15019576
@colliric

Yup, he's from South Australia, Perth he said. Looking at a map of Australia he is located southwest Australia in Perth. He told me Australia is as big as the United States. That was something I never knew until he told me. He also told me the rednecks in Australia are called bogans. He says are always trying to outrun the police similar to our rednecks here in the US but rarely get away and end up going to jail and they never learn their lesson. Just like the rednecks here in the US. He likes to do a lot of fishing in Australia and has the sea close by him he says. So we talk about fishing and he sends me pictures of fish he caught fishing off the coast of Perth. Says he served in the Australian Army in Afghanistan in Kabul so we exchange war stories and talked about life after war as a civilian. Seems like a straight up guy. I met a few Australians face to face while I was serving in Afghanistan. Another thing he told was about the salt water crocs in Australia.
#15019586
Not if you include Alaska and Hawaii, then the USA is easily bigger. But the Mainland USA is also slightly bigger in terms of raw total landmass

Salt Water Crocs are big yeah. But next to none in Victoria. Of the classic "Aussie animals" Koalas, Wombats and Grey Kangaroos galore in country Victoria. Even Penguins love Victoria
(World's most famous Penguin colony is here).
#15019593
@colliric

colliric wrote:Not if you include Alaska and Hawaii, then the USA is easily bigger. But the Mainland USA is also slightly bigger in terms of raw total landmass


Yeah, I couldn't argue with you there, but we were looking at the mainland USA and didn't think about adding Alaska and Hawaii, which the mainland USA is bigger but not by much. I was surprised by how big Australia really is.

colliric wrote:Salt Water Crocs are big yeah. But next to none in Victoria. Of the classic "Aussie animals" Koalas, Wombats and Grey Kangaroos galore in country Victoria. Even Penguins love Victoria
(World's most famous Penguin colony is here).


Now that is something I would LOVE to do is go on a vacation to Australia and see the Penguin colony. That would be awesome!

Yes, because the Palestinian resistance have a his[…]

The War Machine and Bankers that arm and profit fr[…]

Russia-Ukraine War 2022

^ I shared the Sachs and Meirsheimer videos in her[…]

Hmmm, it the Ukraine aid package is all over mains[…]