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Susan Lamb voted very strongly against increasing scrutiny of unions

How Susan Lamb voted compared to someone who believes that the federal government should increase scrutiny of unions and employer organisations by, for example, creating a commission to monitor them and applying the same standards of disclosure to them as to corporations as well as the same penalties for misconduct

Division Susan Lamb Supporters vote Division outcome

19th Oct 2016, 11:13 AM – Representatives Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Amendment Bill 2014 - Third Reading - Pass the bill

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The majority voted in favour of passing the bill in the House of Representatives. In parliamentary jargon, they voted to read the bill for the third time.

The bill will now be sent to the Senate for their consideration.

What was the bill about?

The Government has tried to pass a bill like this several times over the past few years but hasn't been successful.

The bill was introduced to establish the Registered Organisations Commission to investigate and monitor unions and employer organisations. It also imposes a similar standard disclosure and transparency on union officials as company directors and introduces tougher criminal sanctions.

The bill targets union officials and the bills digest from back in 2014 explains that:

The current Bill has been introduced partly in response to widely publicised misconduct by officers of the Health Services Union. That misconduct has been prosecuted in civil and criminal courts.

 No Yes (strong) 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 0 0 0
Less important absentees (2 points)      
MP absent* 0 0 0
Total: 0 50

*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 / 50 = 0.0%.

And then