How Eric Abetz voted compared to someone who agrees that the federal government should create a time-limited trial of putting a large proportion of a person's welfare payment onto a debit card that cannot be used for alcohol or gambling and cannot be used to make cash withdrawals (see the policy "For putting welfare payments onto cashless debit cards (or indue cards) on an ongoing basis" for votes on extending the program indefinitely)

Most important divisions relevant to this policy

These are the most important divisions related to the policy “for putting welfare payments onto cashless debit cards (or indue cards) on a temporary basis as a trial” which Eric Abetz could have attended. They are weighted much more strongly than other divisions when calculating the position of Eric Abetz on this policy.

Division Eric Abetz Supporters vote

3rd Apr 2019, 9:19 PM – Senate Social Security (Administration) Amendment (Income Management and Cashless Welfare) Bill 2019 - Third Reading - Pass the bill

absent Yes

11th Sep 2018, 2:02 PM – Senate Social Services Legislation Amendment (Cashless Debit Card Trial Expansion) Bill 2018 - Third Reading - Pass the bill

Yes Yes

23rd Aug 2018, 11:32 AM – Senate Social Services Legislation Amendment (Cashless Debit Card Trial Expansion) Bill 2018 - Second Reading - Agree with the bill's main idea

Yes Yes

20th Aug 2018, 7:47 PM – Senate Regulations and Determinations - Social Security (Administration) (Trial of Cashless Welfare Arrangements) Determination 2018 - Disallow extension of trial

No No

12th Feb 2018, 9:51 PM – Senate Social Services Legislation Amendment (Cashless Debit Card) Bill 2017 - Third Reading - Pass the bill

Yes Yes

12th Feb 2018, 1:51 PM – Senate Social Services Legislation Amendment (Cashless Debit Card) Bill 2017 - Second Reading - Agree with the bill's main idea

Yes Yes

14th Oct 2015, 6:02 PM – Senate Bills — Social Security Legislation Amendment (Debit Card Trial) Bill 2015; Third Reading

absent Yes

14th Oct 2015, 10:08 AM – Senate Bills — Social Security Legislation Amendment (Debit Card Trial) Bill 2015; Second Reading

Yes Yes

Other divisions relevant to this policy

These are less important divisions which are related to the policy “for putting welfare payments onto cashless debit cards (or indue cards) on a temporary basis as a trial” which Eric Abetz could have attended.

Division Eric Abetz Supporters vote

20th Aug 2018, 6:19 PM – Senate Regulations and Determinations - Social Security (Administration) (Trial of Cashless Welfare Arrangements) Determination 2018 and another - Disallow

absent No

19th Jun 2017, 3:59 PM – Senate Motions - Cashless Welfare Card Trial Sites - Do not expand

absent No

14th Sep 2016, 6:49 PM – Senate Regulations and Determinations - Social Security (Administration) (Trial Area — East Kimberley) Determination 2016 - Disallow

absent No

23rd Feb 2016, 6:36 PM – Senate Regulations and Determinations — Social Security (Administration) (Trial Area – Ceduna and Surrounding Region) Determination 2015; Disallowance

No No

How "voted almost always for" 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 6
MP voted against policy 0% 25 0
MP absent 50% 25 2
Less important votes MP voted with policy 100% 5 1
MP voted against policy 0% 5 0
MP absent 50% 1 3

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) = 181.5 / 208 = 87%.

And then this average agreement score