How Simon Birmingham voted compared to someone who agrees that there should be more independent access to detention centres and more information provided about the management of asylum seekers under Australian government policy, including the interception of boats at sea

Most important divisions relevant to this policy

These are the most important divisions related to the policy “for increasing scrutiny of asylum seeker management” which Simon Birmingham could have attended. They are weighted much more strongly than other divisions when calculating the position of Simon Birmingham on this policy.

Division Simon Birmingham Supporters vote

25th Jun 2015, 5:38 PM – Senate Migration Amendment (Regional Processing Arrangements) Bill 2015 - in Committee - Access to regional detention centres

absent Yes

25th Jun 2015, 5:24 PM – Senate Migration Amendment (Regional Processing Arrangements) Bill 2015 - in Committee - Mandatory reporting of abuse

absent Yes

16th Jun 2015, 4:14 PM – Senate Documents — Australian Customs Service; Order for the Production of Documents — Paying people smugglers

No Yes

14th May 2015, 3:43 PM – Senate Australian Border Force Bill 2015 and related bill - Third Reading - Pass the bill

absent No

4th Dec 2014, 11:55 PM – Senate Migration and Maritime Powers Legislation Amendment (Resolving the Asylum Legacy Caseload) Bill 2014 - in Committee - Keep schedule 5 as it is

Yes No

4th Dec 2014, 11:45 PM – Senate Migration and Maritime Powers Legislation Amendment (Resolving the Asylum Legacy Caseload) Bill 2014 - in Committee - Keep schedule 4 as it is

Yes No

4th Dec 2014, 11:01 PM – Senate Migration and Maritime Powers Legislation Amendment (Resolving the Asylum Legacy Caseload) Bill 2014 - in Committee - Keep schedule 3 as it is

absent No

4th Dec 2014, 8:58 PM – Senate Migration and Maritime Powers Legislation Amendment (Resolving the Asylum Legacy Caseload) Bill 2014 - Second Reading - Agree with bill's main idea

Yes No

4th Dec 2014, 12:15 AM – Senate Migration and Maritime Powers Legislation Amendment (Resolving the Asylum Legacy Caseload) Bill 2014 - Third Reading - Pass the bill

Yes No

4th Dec 2014, 12:11 AM – Senate Migration and Maritime Powers Legislation Amendment (Resolving the Asylum Legacy Caseload) Bill 2014 - in Committee - Agree with the amended bill

Yes No

16th May 2013, 11:28 AM – Senate Migration Amendment (Unauthorised Maritime Arrivals and Other Measures) Bill 2012 - In Committee - Media access

absent Yes

16th May 2013, 11:06 AM – Senate Migration Amendment (Unauthorised Maritime Arrivals and Other Measures) Bill 2012 - In Committee - AHRC access

absent Yes

16th Aug 2012, 9:09 PM – Senate Migration Legislation Amendment (Regional Processing and Other Measures) Bill 2012 - In Committee - Independent annual review

absent Yes

Other divisions relevant to this policy

These are less important divisions which are related to the policy “for increasing scrutiny of asylum seeker management” which Simon Birmingham could have attended.

Division Simon Birmingham Supporters vote

13th May 2021, 1:46 PM – Senate Migration Amendment (Clarifying International Obligations for Removal) Bill 2021 - Third Reading - Pass the bill

absent No

13th May 2021, 1:35 PM – Senate Migration Amendment (Clarifying International Obligations for Removal) Bill 2021 - Second Reading - Agree with bill's main idea

absent No

11th Nov 2019, 5:07 PM – Senate Regulations and Determinations - Migration (Fast Track Applicant Class – Temporary Protection and Safe Haven Enterprise Visas) Instrument 2019 - Disallow

No Yes

13th Feb 2019, 11:05 AM – Senate Home Affairs Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures) Bill 2018 - Returned from the House of Representatives - Agree with amendments to pass bill

No Yes

6th Dec 2018, 4:47 PM – Senate Home Affairs Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures) Bill 2018 - Third Reading - Pass the bill

No Yes

5th Dec 2017, 5:56 PM – Senate Regulations and Determinations - Migration Legislation Amendment (2017 Measures No. 4) Regulations 2017 - Disallow

No Yes

8th Feb 2017, 4:03 PM – Senate Documents - Resettlement of Refugees - Order for the Production of Documents

No Yes

12th Sep 2016, 4:48 PM – Senate Committees - Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee - Nauru & Manus Island centres

No Yes

1st Sep 2016, 12:45 PM – Senate Motions - Immigration Detention - Nauru documents

No Yes

31st Aug 2016, 4:23 PM – Senate Motions - Immigration Detention - Royal Commission

absent Yes

19th Apr 2016, 7:36 PM – Senate Motions - Asylum Seekers - Present documents to the Senate

No Yes

14th May 2015, 1:58 PM – Senate Australian Border Force Bill 2015 and related bill - in Committee - Public interest amendment

No Yes

4th Dec 2014, 10:17 PM – Senate Migration and Maritime Powers Legislation Amendment (Resolving the Asylum Legacy Caseload) Bill 2014 - in Committee - Include Minister's promise to increase intake in bill

No Yes

4th Dec 2014, 9:57 PM – Senate Migration and Maritime Powers Legislation Amendment (Resolving the Asylum Legacy Caseload) Bill 2014 - in Committee - Government amendments

Yes No

24th Nov 2014, 4:33 PM – Senate Documents — Asylum Seekers; Order for the Production of Documents

No Yes

14th Jul 2014, 3:55 PM – Senate Motions — Asylum Seekers — Disclose information

No Yes

19th Jun 2014, 12:30 PM – Senate Committees - World Refugee Day - Transparency

No Yes

9th Dec 2013, 4:21 PM – Senate Motions - Asylum Seekers - UNHCR reports into Nauru and Manus Island

No Yes

5th Dec 2013, 12:47 PM – Senate Documents - Asylum Seekers; Order for the Production of Documents

No Yes

7th Feb 2013, 12:18 PM – Senate Motions - Immigration Detention Facilities - Media access

absent Yes

12th Sep 2012, 11:45 AM – Senate Motions - Republic of Nauru - 12 month limit on detention

absent Yes

12th Oct 2011 – Senate Motions - Asylum Seekers - Siev X

No Yes

24th Nov 2009, 3:41 PM – Senate Border Protection Committee of Cabinet Meeting - Order - Produce documents

absent Yes

27th Aug 2008, 4:21 PM – Senate Motions - MV Tampa: Seventh Anniversary - Inquiry into immigration detention

No Yes

10th May 2007, 10:17 AM – Senate Motions - Iraq - Information requested

No Yes

How "voted generally 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 6
MP absent 50% 25 7
Less important votes MP voted with policy 100% 5 0
MP voted against policy 0% 5 19
MP absent 50% 1 6

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) = 90.5 / 426 = 21%.

And then this average agreement score