How Simon Birmingham voted compared to someone who agrees that the Federal Government should protect whales within Australian waters by, for example, taking action against the Japanese Government over its whaling program in the Southern Ocean

Most important divisions relevant to this policy

These are the most important divisions related to the policy “for protecting whales within Australian waters” 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
no votes listed

Other divisions relevant to this policy

These are less important divisions which are related to the policy “for protecting whales within Australian waters” which Simon Birmingham could have attended.

Division Simon Birmingham Supporters vote

18th Sep 2018, 4:45 PM – Senate Motions - Whaling - Patrol against + investigate legal options

No Yes

27th Mar 2018, 4:08 PM – Senate Motions - Oil Exploration - Seismic testing in the Great Australian Bight

absent Yes

28th Feb 2013, 12:16 PM – Senate Motions - Whaling - Seek explanation for non-compliance with injunction

No Yes

21st Nov 2012, 4:00 PM – Senate Motions - Seismic Survey - Harm to marine wildlife

No Yes

13th May 2010, 10:13 AM – Senate Motions - Petroleum Exploration - Protect marine wildlife of Margaret River coastline

absent Yes

How "voted almost always 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 0
MP absent 50% 25 0
Less important votes MP voted with policy 100% 5 0
MP voted against policy 0% 5 3
MP absent 50% 1 2

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) = 1.0 / 17 = 6%.

And then this average agreement score