Photo of Geoff Lyons

Geoff Lyons voted very strongly for stopping tax avoidance or aggressive tax minimisation

How Geoff Lyons voted compared to someone who believes that the federal government should make it harder for individuals and corporations to avoid or aggressively minimise their Australian tax obligations and take part in international efforts to keep track of these individuals and corporations by sharing income and asset information

Division Geoff Lyons Supporters vote Division outcome

6th Jun 2013, 11:46 AM – Representatives Tax Laws Amendment (2013 Measures No. 2) Bill 2013 - Consideration in Detail - Reject transparency provisions

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The majority voted against an amendment that would have deleted the transparency provisions from the bill. This means that the amendment failed.

People who supported the transparency provisions voted "no" and people who wanted to get rid of the provisions voted "yes".

What are the transparency provisions?

The bill requires the Commissioner of Taxation to publish certain tax information of corporations that have a total annual income of $100 million or more. That tax information includes the corporation's:

  • name and ABN;
  • total income;
  • taxable income; and
  • tax payable.

The bill also gives the Commissioner a separate duty to publish the final amount of the corporation's annual payable Minerals Resource Rent Tax (MRRT) or Petroleum Resource Rent Tax (PRRT) (if any).

See Chapter 3 of the explanatory memorandum for more information.

 No No Not passed by a small majority

How "voted very strongly for" is worked out

The MP's votes count towards a weighted average where the most important votes get 50 points, less important votes get 10 points, and less important votes for which the MP was absent get 2 points. In important votes the MP gets awarded the full 50 points for voting the same as the policy, 0 points for voting against the policy, and 25 points for not voting. In less important votes, the MP gets 10 points for voting with the policy, 0 points for voting against, and 1 (out of 2) if absent.

Then, the number gets converted to a simple english language phrase based on the range of values it's within.

No of votes Points Out of
Most important votes (50 points)      
MP voted with policy 0 0 0
MP voted against policy 0 0 0
MP absent 0 0 0
Less important votes (10 points)      
MP voted with policy 1 10 10
MP voted against policy 0 0 0
Less important absentees (2 points)      
MP absent* 0 0 0
Total: 10 10

*Pressure of other work means MPs or Senators are not always available to vote – it does not always indicate they have abstained. Therefore, being absent on a less important vote makes a disproportionatly small difference.

Agreement score = MP's points / total points = 10 / 10 = 100%.

And then