Photo of Andrew Southcott

Andrew Southcott voted very strongly against carbon farming

How Andrew Southcott voted compared to someone who believes that the federal government should introduce a carbon farming initiative that encourages the farming and timber industries to decrease carbon emissions or to increase carbon storage (known as carbon sequestration)

Division Andrew Southcott Supporters vote Division outcome

16th Jun 2011 – Representatives Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative) Bill 2011 - Second Reading - Read a second time

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The majority voted in favour of a motion to read the bill for a second time.(Read more about the stages that a bill must pass through to become law here. ) This means that the majority agree with the main idea of the bill and that they can now consider it in detail.

Background to the bill

The bill was introduced as part of a package of three related bills to establish a voluntary carbon offset scheme, to be called the Carbon Farming Initiative.(The other two related bills were the Carbon Credits (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2011 and the Australian National Registry of Emissions Units Bill 2011. ) Introducing this scheme was a Government election commitment. The bills digest explains that the Initiative will be "a voluntary scheme that aims to provide incentives for the agricultural and forestry sectors to minimise carbon emissions or maximise carbon sequestration by altering their forestry and agricultural practices".

The bill's stated objectives are:

 No Yes (strong) Passed by a small majority

16th Jun 2011 – Representatives Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative) Bill 2011 - Second Reading - Keep original motion unchanged

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The majority voted in favour of a motion "That the words proposed to be omitted (Mr Hunt's amendment) stand part of the question." In other words, the majority wanted wanted the original motion to remain unchanged.

The original motion was "That this bill be now read a second time." Liberal MP Greg Hunt introduced the following amendment to this:

That all words after “That” be omitted with a view to substituting the following words:

“the House decline to give the bill a second reading until the terms of the regulations giving effect to the provisions of the bill are laid before the House”.

Because the majority voted in favour of this motion to keep the original motion unchanged, Mr Hunt's amendment won't proceed.

Background to the bill

The bill was introduced as part of a package of three related bills to establish a voluntary carbon offset scheme, to be called the Carbon Farming Initiative.(The other two related bills were the Carbon Credits (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2011 and the Australian National Registry of Emissions Units Bill 2011. ) Introducing this scheme was a Government election commitment. The bills digest explains that the Initiative will be "a voluntary scheme that aims to provide incentives for the agricultural and forestry sectors to minimise carbon emissions or maximise carbon sequestration by altering their forestry and agricultural practices".

The bill's stated objectives are:

 No Yes Passed by a small majority

How "voted very strongly against" 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 1 0 50
MP absent 0 0 0
Less important votes (10 points)      
MP voted with policy 0 0 0
MP voted against policy 1 0 10
Less important absentees (2 points)      
MP absent* 0 0 0
Total: 0 60

*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 = 0 / 60 = 0.0%.

And then