Category Archives: They Vote For You

Hung parliament? There is a silver lining…

By Mackay Ash | Published: June 24, 2017

The latest election in the United Kingdom has resulted in a hung parliament – something we’re familiar with here in Australia. Our 2010 federal election ended in a hung parliament, with six crossbenchers holding the balance of power in an uneasy alliance with the Australian Labor Party. And our last election was so close that […]

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They Vote For You: “dishonest”?

By Mackay Ash | Published: April 28, 2017

A common query we get over email or social media is how we choose what bills appear on They Vote For You and why we don’t just include every bill that passes through Parliament. Occasionally, these queries are accompanied by accusations of dishonesty, inaccuracy, bias and more. As much as I’d love to dismiss these […]

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Bums on seats: how often is your representative present in Parliament?

By Mackay Ash | Published: October 14, 2016

Attendance levels in Parliament vary a lot. With the 45th Parliament just a few weeks in, our parliamentary vote tracking website They Vote For You is currently listing some federal politicians with 100% attendance and some with as low as 38% attendance. But what do these figures actually tell us and how accurate are they? […]

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They Vote For You – Why isn’t there a policy on that?

By Mackay Ash | Published: July 28, 2016

Firstly, thank you for visiting They Vote For You! We currently have over a hundred policies that you can use to explore how your representatives vote on particular issues. But what if something’s missing that you really care about? And why isn’t it there already? Here are three possible reasons why we may not have […]

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They Vote For You – What new policies would you like to see?

By Mackay Ash | Published: July 14, 2016

They Vote For You now has over one hundred policies to help us keep track of how our representatives are voting on our behalf! They range from whether to have a Royal Commission into banking to whether to legalise same-sex marriage, and you can find them all on your representative’s voting record. For example, here’s […]

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Our response to the ‘Electronic voting in the House of Representatives’ Report

By Mackay Ash | Published: May 24, 2016

Back in March, we submitted our views to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Procedure’s inquiry into electronic voting. And their Final Report is out now! Our submission outlined the benefits that electronic voting could bring by creating a fuller voting record, which increases accountability and transparency. Unfortunately, the Committee didn’t quite see it […]

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Rebels in the ranks? Hardly.

By Mackay Ash | Published: May 5, 2016

Members of parliamentary parties rarely cross the floor, because parties expect loyalty from their team members. … [Crossing the floor] may be seen to be giving greater preference to the needs of the electorate than the needs of the party. … A member of parliament who crosses the floor may be considered a traitor to […]

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They Vote For You and the Open Government Partnership (OGP) – Continued

By Mackay Ash | Published: April 7, 2016

Back in mid-March, we announced that They Vote For You was getting into the Open Government Partnership (OGP) action. We started by developing policies related to the Anti-Corruption Working Group: For creating a federal Anti-Corruption Commission For restricting donations to political parties We then looked at the Public Resources Working Group and came up with […]

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Our submission to the Inquiry into procedures for counting and reporting the vote in a division

By Luke Bacon | Published: March 17, 2016

These are the buttons Ukrainian MPs use to vote *cough* @AboutTheHouse @AuSenate *cough* #auspol #qt #parliament pic.twitter.com/j69R72a248 — Henare Degan (@henaredegan) November 13, 2015 If you follow this blog, or our projects like OpenAustralia.org.au or They Vote For You, you’ll know that we work hard to increase peoples’ access to information about what goes on […]

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They Vote For You and the Open Government Partnership (OGP)

By Mackay Ash | Published: March 16, 2016

In July Australia will submit its first National Action Plan to the Open Government Partnership (OGP). These National Action Plans are lists of concrete commitments to advance open government in an OGP member country over a two year period by improving transparency, participation, and accountability. The commitments are co-created by the government and civil society. […]

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