Australia's inconclusive general election is creating uncertainty for business as the major two parties seek to woo the independents who hold the balance of power.
For many, the election of 21 August represented a choice between tweedle-dee and tweedle-dum - so little separated the major parties.
But Radio New Zealand's Sydney correspondent reports that the ultimate make-up of the federal Parliament in Canberra could be critical for at least three industries.
For the mining sector, the Labor Party's proposed resource rent tax of 30% is a reason to hope Tony Abbott's conservative coalition forms a government.
But for telecommunications, Julia Gillard's promised $A43 billion national broadband network is a reason to back a second term for Labor.
And much of the financial services industry also has a vested interest in Labor keeping power, given its policy of increasing the compulsory superannuation levy from 9% to 12%.
It's not 1993 now
Talk of the hung Parliament hurting financial markets has not, however, come to much.
Financial markets took fright in 1993, when the Keating Labor government's budget was stuck in the Senate. These days, though, everyone seems much more relaxed about the manoeuvring in Canberra.
Analysts say that's probably because nothing separates the two major parties in terms of macro-economic policy. Both are pledged to return the budget to surplus within three years and both support an independent inflation-fighting central bank.
But it may also be because the major economic challenges currently facing Australia are external - the legacy to global growth from the financial crisis and the need for coordinated global action on climate change.
