How Ian Macfarlane voted compared to someone who agrees that the federal government should increase investment in renewable energy technologies

Most important divisions relevant to this policy

These are the most important divisions related to the policy “for increasing investment in renewable energy” which Ian Macfarlane could have attended. They are weighted much more strongly than other divisions when calculating the position of Ian Macfarlane on this policy.

Division Ian Macfarlane Supporters vote

30th May 2012, 7:18 PM – Representatives Clean Energy Finance Corporation Bill 2012 - Second Reading - Read a second time

No Yes

Other divisions relevant to this policy

These are less important divisions which are related to the policy “for increasing investment in renewable energy” which Ian Macfarlane could have attended.

Division Ian Macfarlane Supporters vote

1st Sep 2014, 8:05 PM – Representatives Australian Renewable Energy Agency (Repeal) Bill 2014 — Second Reading — Criticise abolition of ARENA

No Yes

1st Sep 2014 – Representatives Australian Renewable Energy Agency (Repeal) Bill 2014 - Second Reading - Read a second time

Yes No

14th Jul 2014, 5:52 PM – Representatives Clean Energy Legislation (Carbon Tax Repeal) Bill 2014 — Consideration in Detail — Restore funding to ARENA

No Yes

27th Mar 2014, 1:09 PM – Representatives Clean Energy Finance Corporation (Abolition) Bill 2013 [No. 2] - Third Reading - Read a third time

Yes No

17th Aug 2009, 9:10 PM – Representatives Renewable Energy (Electricity) Amendment Bill 2009 and related bills - Consideration in Detail - Coalition amendments

Yes No

20th Jun 2006, 6:11 PM – Representatives Renewable Energy (Electricity) Amendment Bill 2006 - Second Reading - Stand as part of the question

Yes 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 1
MP absent 50% 25 0
Less important votes MP voted with policy 100% 5 1
MP voted against policy 0% 5 5
MP absent 50% 1 0

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) = 5.0 / 55 = 9%.

And then this average agreement score