How Barry O'Sullivan voted compared to someone who agrees that the federal government should introduce legislation and regulations that protect and conserve Australia's marine ecosystems such as the Great Barrier Reef

Most important divisions relevant to this policy

These are the most important divisions related to the policy “for increasing marine conservation” which Barry O'Sullivan could have attended. They are weighted much more strongly than other divisions when calculating the position of Barry O'Sullivan on this policy.

Division Barry O'Sullivan Supporters vote

16th Aug 2018, 4:14 PM – Senate Regulations and Determinations - Marine Parks Network Management Plans - Disallow

No Yes

16th Aug 2018, 4:10 PM – Senate Regulations and Determinations - Marine Parks Network Management Plan - Disallow

No Yes

12th Feb 2015, 1:38 PM – Senate Bills – Environment Legislation Amendment Bill 2013 – in Committee – Amendment: extend protections to all threatened species

absent Yes

Other divisions relevant to this policy

These are less important divisions which are related to the policy “for increasing marine conservation” which Barry O'Sullivan could have attended.

Division Barry O'Sullivan Supporters vote

12th Feb 2019 – Senate Motions - Great Australian Bight - End oil and gas drilling

absent Yes

4th Dec 2018, 4:46 PM – Senate Motions - East Coast Inshore Fin Fish Fishery - Add conditions to accreditation

No Yes

3rd Dec 2018, 4:39 PM – Senate Motions - Shark Mitigation - Non-lethal methods

No Yes

14th Nov 2018, 7:24 PM – Senate Committees - Environment and Communications References Committee - Refer matter

absent Yes

12th Nov 2018, 4:32 PM – Senate Committees - Environment and Communications References Committee - Refer matter

No Yes

25th Jun 2018, 4:11 PM – Senate Motions - Great Australian Bight - World Heritage Listing

absent Yes

27th Mar 2018, 7:38 PM – Senate Regulations and Determinations - Marine Parks Network Management Plans - Disallow

absent Yes

27th Mar 2018, 4:08 PM – Senate Motions - Oil Exploration - Seismic testing in the Great Australian Bight

absent Yes

22nd Jun 2017, 12:24 PM – Senate Motions - Aquaculture Industry - Okehampton Bay salmon farm

No Yes

12th Oct 2016, 4:06 PM – Senate Motions - Oil Exploration - Great Australian Bight

No Yes

2nd Mar 2016, 4:32 PM – Senate Motions - Protection of Shark Species - Full protection to five species

No Yes

15th Oct 2015, 12:42 PM – Senate Motions - Oil Exploration - Release Environmental Plan

absent Yes

7th Sep 2015, 3:45 PM – Senate Refer 'supertrawlers' to the Environment and Communications References Committee

absent Yes

16th Jun 2014, 5:54 PM – Senate Documents - World Heritage Committee - Protect the Fitzroy Delta, Keppel Bay, north Curtis Island and northern section of the reef

No Yes

How "voted almost always against" is worked out

They Vote For You gives each vote a score based on whether the MP voted in agreement with the policy or not. These scores are then averaged with a weighting across all votes that the MP could have voted on relevant to the policy. The overall average score is then converted to a simple english language phrase based on the range of values it's within.

When an MP votes in agreement with a policy the vote is scored as 100%. When they vote against the policy it is scored as 0% and when they are absent it is scored half way between the two at 50%. The half way point effectively says "we don't know whether they are for or against this policy".

The overall agreement score for the policy is worked out by a weighted average of the scores for each vote. The weighting has been chosen so that the most important votes have a weighting 5 times that of the less important votes. Also, absent votes on less important votes are weighted 5 times less again to not penalise MPs for not attending the less important votes. Pressure of other work means MPs or Senators are not always available to vote – it does not always mean they've abstained.

Type of vote Agreement score (s) Weight (w) No of votes (n)
Most important votes MP voted with policy 100% 25 0
MP voted against policy 0% 25 2
MP absent 50% 25 1
Less important votes MP voted with policy 100% 5 0
MP voted against policy 0% 5 7
MP absent 50% 1 7

The final agreement score is a weighted average (weighted arithmetic mean) of the scores of the individual votes.

Average agreement score = sum(n×w×s) / sum(n×w) = 16.0 / 117 = 14%.

And then this average agreement score