UK election betting scandal exposes 'outrageous' gaps in Australia (4 July 2024)
Article summary: Australian politicians and staffers are remarkably not technically banned from betting on elections. WA Independent Kate Chaney urgently wants that to change.
The engulfing the British general election has already claimed nearly a dozen scalps with three candidates and two officials dumped, one bodyguard arrested and up to five additional Metropolitan Police officers being investigated.
In Australia, it has led to a quiet unease within Labor, the Liberal Party and The Greens about the lack of rules around betting on the election date or the result.
While the Ministerial Code of Conduct and the Ministerial Staff Code of Conduct prohibit using information obtained within government for financial or personal gain, there are no such rules for backbench MPs and their staff.
The Labor Party says it has banned campaign staff from betting on elections since the early 2000s. The Liberals have no strict policy, but insist gambling on elections is discouraged and betting sites can’t be accessed on federal party networks.
It's unclear who has primary responsibility for investigating suspicious bets on Australian elections with the country having no national regulator - unlike in the UK where the Gambling Commission has wide-ranging powers and is investigating the three sacked candidates.
