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Scott Morrison voted very strongly against doctor-initiated medical transfers

How Scott Morrison voted compared to someone who believes that the Federal Government should pass laws that ensure that people seeking asylum who are being held at offshore processing centres will be transferred to Australia for medical attention if more than one doctor say they need it, unless the Home Affairs Minister rejects it for security reasons

Division Scott Morrison Supporters vote Division outcome

12th Feb 2019, 6:11 PM – Representatives Home Affairs Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures) Bill 2018 - Consideration of Senate Message - Agree with the amendments

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The majority voted in favour of a motion that "the Senate amendments be agreed to with the amendments as set out in the schedule circulated to honourable Members."

Why is this vote significant?

According to ABC News, this vote represents the first Government in almost 80 years to lose a vote on its own legislation.

What does the bill do?

According to the bills digest, the bill was introduced to make various amendments to migration, customs and passenger movement laws, including:

  • clarifying that where the removal of a non-citizen from the migration zone to another country is unsuccessful, a visa is not required to bring the person back to Australia and they remain subject to statutory bars on subsequent visa applications, where applicable;
  • providing that the Minister may make documents available to a person by way of an online account;
  • providing that the Commonwealth may appropriate money from the Consolidated Revenue Fund to pay refunds, rebates or drawbacks of customs duty in circumstances where those payments have no other statutory basis; and
  • amending the Passenger Movement Charge Collection Act 1978 to specify that regulations may make provision for the charging and recovery of fees in relation to the Passenger Movement Charge.
 No Yes (strong) Passed by a small majority

12th Feb 2019, 6:09 PM – Representatives Home Affairs Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures) Bill 2018 - Consideration of Senate Message - Amendment

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The majority voted in favour of an amendment to a motion that "That the amendments be disagreed to."

Amendment text

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

"The Senate amendments be agreed to with the amendments as set out in the schedule circulated to honourable Members."

See OpenAustralia for the text of the amendments.

What does the bill do?

According to the bills digest, the bill was introduced to make various amendments to migration, customs and passenger movement laws, including:

  • clarifying that where the removal of a non-citizen from the migration zone to another country is unsuccessful, a visa is not required to bring the person back to Australia and they remain subject to statutory bars on subsequent visa applications, where applicable;
  • providing that the Minister may make documents available to a person by way of an online account;
  • providing that the Commonwealth may appropriate money from the Consolidated Revenue Fund to pay refunds, rebates or drawbacks of customs duty in circumstances where those payments have no other statutory basis; and
  • amending the Passenger Movement Charge Collection Act 1978 to specify that regulations may make provision for the charging and recovery of fees in relation to the Passenger Movement Charge.
 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