Category Archives: Projects

Productive discussions and pointed attacks

It’s been a busy few weeks for They Vote For You. We’ve benefited from a surge in interest despite, or because of, some very pointed attacks by two MPs on the integrity and motivation of the site and the work of the OpenAustralia Foundation in general. With a renewed surge of interest from the general […]

Also posted in OpenAustralia.org, They Vote For You | Tagged | 1 Response

Putting Councillors to Bed in PlanningAlerts

This week we’re removing councillors, and the ability to write to councillors from PlanningAlerts. We disabled the feature in 2019. Now we’re removing the functionality from the code that runs the site and as a side-effect historical comments to councillors made between 2016 and 2019 will now no longer be visible on PlanningAlerts. Why on […]

Also posted in PlanningAlerts.org.au | 2 Responses

Right to Know Pro For Journalists, Researchers, Academics, Campaigners, and FOI professionals.

A new way to make FOI requests, for professionals Since we launched Right to Know we’ve regularly heard from journalists, who would love to use Right to Know, but need to keep Freedom of Information (FOI) requests under wraps until a story comes together. We also know it’s not only journalists who need to work […]

Also posted in Announcement, RightToKnow.org.au | Leave a comment

Thank You for All Your Comments

Today we removed the ability for people to comment on speeches published at openaustralia.org.au We’re taking a pause on letting anyone comment on OpenAustralia because, in our work we want to make it a little easier for people who want to make a difference, to have their voices heard, for their voices to matter in […]

Also posted in Announcement, OpenAustralia.org | Leave a comment

How we deal with moderation on Right to Know

There have recently been a few articles published in The Guardian about a request on Right to Know that we were asked to moderate. As one of the volunteers who spends the most time looking after Right to Know, I wanted to explain what happened in this case and explain how we moderate requests on […]

Also posted in RightToKnow.org.au, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Comments closed

The story of a tiny, almost invisible change

Also posted in Planning, PlanningAlerts.org.au | Tagged | 1 Response

Last week in Parliament

You may have been reading about the unsuccessful amendments to the Coronavirus Economic Response Package that opposition MPs and Senators attempted to pass last week. The amendments related to expanding the Government’s JobKeeper payment to include more workers, such as casual workers, workers with major charities and working-visa holders who are still in the country. […]

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Coronavirus and our Federal Parliament

Our federal parliament is scheduled to sit next week but, due to the Coronavirus pandemic, it’s going to look a bit different. On Wednesday, the Prime Minister released a media release explaining the type of changes we should expect. In a nut shell, our parliament is battening down the hatches and reducing its business to […]

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Who will you vote for this election? A party or a person?

They Vote For You is based on the principle of holding individual representatives to account. You can find your representative’s report card and see how your electorate’s voting power is being used in Parliament. If you’re unhappy with what you find, you can contact your representative and ask for an explanation. And if you’re very […]

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Do They Vote For You?

Barnaby Joyce's voting record

As the federal election draws closer and campaigning heats up, many MPs looking for re-election are making claims about what they’ve stood for in their time in parliament. But do the claims they’re making actually match their voting record?

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