How Helen Polley voted compared to someone who agrees that the federal government should increase funding for university education

Most important divisions relevant to this policy

These are the most important divisions related to the policy “for increasing funding for university education” which Helen Polley could have attended. They are weighted much more strongly than other divisions when calculating the position of Helen Polley on this policy.

Division Helen Polley Supporters vote

8th Oct 2020, 5:41 PM – Senate Higher Education Support Amendment (Job-Ready Graduates and Supporting Regional and Remote Students) Bill 2020 - Third Reading - Pass the bill

No No

8th Oct 2020, 1:09 PM – Senate Higher Education Support Amendment (Job-Ready Graduates and Supporting Regional and Remote Students) Bill 2020 - Agree to remaining stages

No No

8th Oct 2020, 11:49 AM – Senate Higher Education Support Amendment (Job-Ready Graduates and Supporting Regional and Remote Students) Bill 2020 - Second Reading - Agree with bill's main idea

No No

Other divisions relevant to this policy

These are less important divisions which are related to the policy “for increasing funding for university education” which Helen Polley could have attended.

Division Helen Polley Supporters vote

9th Aug 2021, 9:35 PM – Senate Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (Charges) Bill 2021 and another - Third Reading - Pass the bills

absent No

9th Aug 2021, 9:31 PM – Senate Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (Charges) Bill 2021 and another - in Committee - Keep bills in current form

absent No

5th Aug 2021, 1:14 PM – Senate Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (Charges) Bill 2021 and another - Second Reading - Agree with bills' main idea

absent No

8th Dec 2020, 5:12 PM – Senate Motions - Higher Education - Asian languages

Yes Yes

17th Oct 2019, 11:31 AM – Senate Emergency Response Fund (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2019 - in Committee - The Education Investment Fund

absent No

15th Sep 2016, 9:16 PM – Senate Budget Savings (Omnibus) Bill 2016 - Second Reading - Higher education funding

No Yes

16th Jun 2014, 5:49 PM – Senate Motions - Higher Education Funding - Reverse the budget cuts

absent Yes

17th Mar 2014, 8:02 PM – Senate Regulations and Determinations - Commonwealth Scholarships Guidelines (Education) 2013, Commonwealth Grant Scheme Guidelines 2012 - Disallowance

Yes Yes

20th Nov 2012, 4:14 PM – Senate Motions - University of Western Sydney - Retain current courses and academic staffing resources

absent Yes

28th Feb 2012, 3:45 PM – Senate Motions - Higher Education - Increase base funding

absent Yes

23rd Nov 2011 – Senate Motions - Education Funding - Increase public higher education funding

No Yes

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 3
MP voted against policy 0% 25 0
MP absent 50% 25 0
Less important votes MP voted with policy 100% 5 2
MP voted against policy 0% 5 2
MP absent 50% 1 7

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) = 88.5 / 102 = 87%.

And then this average agreement score