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Lin Thorp voted very strongly for a minerals resource rent tax

How Lin Thorp voted compared to someone who believes that the federal government should put a tax on profits earned from mining mineral resources such as coal and iron ore

Division Lin Thorp Supporters vote Division outcome

25th Mar 2014, 2:01 PM – Senate Minerals Resource Rent Tax Repeal and Other Measures Bill 2013 - Second Reading - Read a second time

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The majority voted against a motion to read the bill for a second time.(Read more about the stages a bill must pass through here. )

This means that the majority disagreed with the main idea of the bill and that the bill will no longer proceed.

Background to the bill

The bill was first introduced into the House by Treasurer Joe Hockey to repeal the minerals resource rent tax ('MRRT'), which the Coalition called the “mining tax”.(You can read more about the MRRT here. ) The tax began 1 July 2012 and applies to profits earned from the extraction of mineral resources such as coal and iron ore. Its abolition was an election promise of the Coalition during the 2013 election campaign.(You can read the Coalition's policy here.)

The bill also repeals the schoolkids bonus, the income support bonus and the low income superannuation contribution.

References

 No No (strong) Not passed by a small majority

How "voted very strongly for" 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 1 50 50
MP voted against policy 0 0 0
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: 50 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 = 50 / 50 = 100%.

And then