As Joe Hockey prepares to hand down his second budget tonight, and the country waits for the news – good or bad – and how it will impact their day-to-day lives, the bookies are concentrating on all things important, like the colour of the Treasurer’s tie.
Blue is going to be the colour of the moment, according to the punters, as bets on Hockey donning a blue tie opened at $3.00 and dropped to $2.25, taking almost 85 per cent of the tie-colour bets, according to Sports Bet.
A purple tie stands at $5.00 while red stands at $6.00.
Liberal men tend to don blue ties, as Julia Gillard pointedly expressed during her time in the top job, so it is not surprising the colour blue holds the highest odds.
But while Labour men like Paul Keating – who handed down budgets from 1983 to 1991 – have regularly donned red ties, Liberal Treasurer Peter Costello wore a red and white striped tie to hand down the 2007 budget.
Like the contents of the budget, anything (red or purple) can happen tonight, leaving many punters empty handed.
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