Polling booths are usually in a school or some other community facility. At schools, the sausage sizzle and/or cake stalls are usually run by the school's P&C (Parents and Citizens association) as a fundraiser.
My girlfriend (who is not an Australian citizen and has never had to vote here) thought exactly the same thing. She was asking me if I could get free lemon slices again after I voted today.
In my defence, I've read lots about Australian democracy sausage and how every polling station has one so I just thought it was a part of the volunteering process of Australian democracy.
Also, this is the first time I'm reading about prices for it, so I thought I'd have heard about it being paid before. I also thought it was a cheap sausage.
Definitely not subsidised in any way. This is roughly equivalent to a US "bake sale" where the school P&C or a sporting organisation sells them as a fundraiser. The govt has zero involvement. It's purely citizen driven.
Yes they're usually fairly cheap/low quality snags though
I'm guessing you're not from Aus. Weird to think that democracy snags are a purely Australian thing... If I didn't eat a sausage after voting I don't know what I'd do with myself. Our democracy might as well collapse
Our elections are always on a Saturday from 9am to 6pm. We also always have a few polling stations open for two weeks before voting day so you can vote early if you can't make it on the official date.