How Kimberley Kitching voted compared to someone who agrees that the federal government should increase the Newstart Allowance rate to ensure that it covers basic living costs

Most important divisions relevant to this policy

These are the most important divisions related to the policy “for increasing the Newstart Allowance rate” which Kimberley Kitching could have attended. They are weighted much more strongly than other divisions when calculating the position of Kimberley Kitching on this policy.

Division Kimberley Kitching Supporters vote

14th Aug 2017, 10:08 AM – Senate Social Security Amendment (Caring for People on Newstart) Bill 2017 - Second Reading - Agree with the bill's main idea

No Yes

Other divisions relevant to this policy

These are less important divisions which are related to the policy “for increasing the Newstart Allowance rate” which Kimberley Kitching could have attended.

Division Kimberley Kitching Supporters vote

11th Sep 2019, 6:35 PM – Senate Matters of Urgency - Newstart Allowance - Increase

Yes Yes

11th Sep 2019, 4:27 PM – Senate Motions - Newstart Allowance - Increase

Yes Yes

24th Jul 2019, 3:55 PM – Senate Motions - Newstart Allowance, Youth Allowance - Increase

Yes Yes

4th Jul 2019, 5:33 PM – Senate Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Relief So Working Australians Keep More of Their Money) Bill 2019 - Second Reading - Government should increase Newstart & Youth Allowance

No Yes

4th Jul 2019, 12:31 PM – Senate Motions - Newstart and Youth Allowance - Raise by $75 a week

absent Yes

4th Dec 2018, 4:10 PM – Senate Motions - Newstart Allowance - Increase

No Yes

12th Nov 2018, 4:57 PM – Senate Motions - Anti-Poverty Week - Increase Newstart & Youth Allowance

No Yes

16th Oct 2018, 4:26 PM – Senate Motions - Taxation - Increase Newstart

No Yes

18th Sep 2018, 4:53 PM – Senate Motions - Newstart - Increase

No Yes

16th Aug 2018, 12:32 PM – Senate Motions - Newstart - Increase rate

absent Yes

20th Jun 2018, 11:40 AM – Senate Treasury Laws Amendment (Personal Income Tax Plan) Bill 2018 - Second Reading - Raise minimum wage, Newstart and Youth Allowance

No Yes

10th May 2018, 12:10 PM – Senate Motions - Pensions and Benefits - Increase single rate of Newstart and Youth Allowance

No Yes

15th Feb 2018 – Senate Motions - Newstart Allowance - Increase rate

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 1
MP absent 50% 25 0
Less important votes MP voted with policy 100% 5 3
MP voted against policy 0% 5 8
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) = 16.0 / 82 = 20%.

And then this average agreement score