The largest crocodile in captivity in Australia yesterday predicted a sticky end to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in this weekend’s parliamentary election.
Big Wendell, a 5.5m whopper in far-north Darwin’s Crocosaurus aquarium, twice ignored the meaty treat tied to a Rudd campaign poster and went for the reward that went with the image of Liberal Party leader Tony Abbott.
Voters in Saturday’s ballot hardly need Big Wendell’s claimed psychic powers to divine the outcome.
A final Essential Research opinion poll has Abbott’s conservatives on 52% of the vote against 48% for Labor, in line with surveys going back to 2010 that consistently have Labor losing its bid for a third term.
It was Big Wendell’s first go at picking a winner since taking over prognostication duties from a predecessor who got the football World Cup victor right as well as the outcome of the 2010 election.
Big Wendell’s verdict on the likely result of the ballot was backed by Deputy Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who declared on national television that Labor was up for a loss.
Albanese is a candidate to replace Rudd as Labor leader if the 55-year-old former diplomat loses his seat tomorrow.
Opinion polling shows Rudd and a Liberal Party first-timer in a tight contest in the Brisbane electorate Rudd won with a 6% margin at the last election.