edited
16th Jun 2015
Motions — Housing Affordability
Christopher Back voted Yes, rebelling against the Liberal Party
Not passed by a modest majority
1 rebellion 77% attendance
Christopher Back
Former Liberal Party Senator for WA March 2009 – July 2017
Rebelled 0.34% of the time explain rebellions 81% attendance explain attendance
How do they vote?
Voted very strongly for
- A Free Trade Agreement with China
- A same-sex marriage plebiscite
- An Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC)
- Australia's timber industry
- Changing the wording of section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act
- Charging postgraduate research students fees
- Continuing Detention Orders (CDOs)
- Decreasing ABC and SBS funding
- Deregulating undergraduate university fees
- Drug testing welfare recipients
- Funding the national school chaplaincy program
- Getting rid of Sunday and public holiday penalty rates
- Giving apprentices access to a $20,000 loan
- Giving approval for mining in the Liverpool Plains
- Government administered paid parental leave
- Increasing beef import standards
- Increasing funding for road infrastructure
- Increasing indexation of HECS-HELP debts
- Increasing investment in the coal industry
- Increasing parliamentary entitlements for current MPs and Senators
- Increasing scrutiny of unions
- Increasing surveillance powers
- Increasing the initial tax rate for working holiday makers to 15%
- Increasing the initial tax rate for working holiday makers to 19%
- Increasing the passenger movement charge ('PMC')
- Increasing the price of tobacco
- Maintaining or increasing defence spending
- Making more water from Murray-Darling Basin available to use
- Nuclear energy
- Offshore oil mining
- Offshore processing for people seeking asylum in Australia
- Privatising government assets
- Privatising government services
- Putting welfare payments onto restricted debit cards (known as cashless debit cards)
- Regional processing of asylum seekers
- Removing parallel import restrictions for books
- Revoking citizenship of dual nationals involved with terrorism offences by the minister
- Technology neutral emission reduction targets
- The Coalition's new schools funding policy ("Gonski 2.0")
- The Coalition's Youth Jobs PaTH
- The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement
- Turning back asylum boats when possible
- Voluntary student union fees
Voted strongly for
- Adani's proposed Carmichael coal mine in the Galilee Basin
- Senate electoral reform
- Temporary protection visas
- Unconventional gas mining
- Uranium export
Voted moderately for
- A declared area offence
- A publicly accessible foreign ownership register for agricultural land
- Decreasing availability of welfare payments
- Live animal export
- Storing all citizens' telecommunications data for access by government agencies
- Tighter means testing of family payments
Voted a mixture of for and against
- Imprisoning immigration detention workers who record or reveal information from their work
- Making sanitary items GST-free
- Preventative Detention Orders (PDOs)
- Protecting whales within Australian waters
- Speeding things along in Parliament (procedural)
- Suspending the rules to allow a vote to happen (procedural)
Voted moderately against
- A fast transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy
- Carbon farming
- Getting rid of the Gold Travel Pass
- Increasing access to medicinal cannabis products
- Increasing accessibility of government data and documents
- Increasing consumer protections
- Increasing freedom of political communication
- Increasing funding for legal aid
- Increasing investment in renewable energy
- Increasing marine conservation
- Increasing protection of Aboriginal heritage sites
- Increasing restrictions on gambling
- Increasing the foreign aid budget to 0.7% of Gross National Income
- Increasing transparency of big business by making information public
- Protecting the Great Barrier Reef
- Protecting whistleblowers
- Strengthening gun control laws
Voted strongly against
- A carbon price
- Encouraging Australian-based industry
- Government action on animal & plant extinctions
- Implementing refugee and protection conventions
- Increasing access under Freedom of Information law
- Increasing scrutiny of asylum seeker management
- Landholders' right to say no to mining and gas exploration
- Public transport
- Restricting foreign ownership
- Same-sex marriage equality
- Stopping tax avoidance or aggressive tax minimisation
- The Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme
Voted very strongly against
- A federal inquiry into Queensland government administration
- A minerals resource rent tax
- A national redress scheme for institutional abuse survivors
- A review of parliamentary entitlements
- A Royal Commission into banking
- A Royal Commission into Violence and Abuse against People with Disability
- An NBN (using fibre to the premises)
- Banning all investment in cluster munitions
- Buffer zones around abortion clinics
- Building Australia’s new submarine fleet in South Australia
- Community right to say no to nuclear waste disposal sites
- Creating a federal Anti-Corruption Commission
- Criminalising "revenge porn"
- Decreasing the gender pay gap
- Decreasing the private health insurance rebate
- Ending illegal logging
- Ending immigration detention on Manus Island
- Ending immigration detention on Nauru
- Federal action on public housing
- For increasing the Youth Allowance rate
- Greater public scrutiny of the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations
- Increasing Aboriginal land rights
- Increasing federal government support for child care
- Increasing fishing restrictions
- Increasing funding for university education
- Increasing housing affordability
- Increasing penalties for breach of data
- Increasing protection of Australia's fresh water
- Increasing support for community radio and TV
- Increasing the Newstart Allowance rate
- Increasing trade unions' powers in the workplace
- Increasing transparency of the China-Australia relationship
- Letting environmental groups challenge the legality of certain government decisions
- Local community consultation on infrastructure projects
- Maintaining or increasing CSIRO funding
- More scrutiny of intelligence services & police
- More scrutiny of the Australian Defence Force
- Pill testing
- Protecting Australian sovereignty in trade agreements
- Protecting citizens' privacy
- Protecting threatened forest and bushland habitats
- Putting a time limit on immigration detention
- Re-approving/ re-registering agvet chemicals
- Recognising local government in the Constitution
- Reducing air pollution
- Refugee family reunification
- Removing children from immigration detention
- Requiring a warrant to access citizens’ telecommunications records
- Requiring every native title claimant to sign land use agreements
- Requiring Parliamentary approval of military deployments
- Restricting donations to political parties
- Targeting foreign interference in Australia
- The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA)
- The use of strong encryption technologies
- Treating government action on climate change as a matter of urgency
- Using natural resource wealth for the benefit of all Australians
- Withdrawing troops from Afghanistan
Has never voted on
- An emissions reduction fund
- Changing the date of Australia Day
- High speed rail on the east coast
- Increasing or removing the Government debt limit
- Increasing political transparency
- Making Australians working overseas repay their student debts
- The Intervention in the Northern Territory
- Tobacco plain packaging
Please note that our voting records start in 2006.
Rebel votes
Christopher Back has voted against the majority of their party 6 times since entering Parliament in March 2009. explain rebellions
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edited 7th Nov 2014
Constitution Alteration (Local Government) 2013 - Third Reading - Pass the bill
Christopher Back voted No, rebelling against the Liberal Party
Passed by a large majority
7 rebellions 71% attendance
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edited 7th Nov 2014
Constitution Alteration (Local Government) 2013 - Second Reading - Agree with the bill's main idea
Christopher Back voted No, rebelling against the Liberal Party
Passed by a large majority
7 rebellions 71% attendance
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edited 7th Oct 2014
Motions - Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Legislation - Defer question of third reading
Christopher Back voted Yes, rebelling against the Liberal Party
Not passed by a modest majority
11 rebellions 86% attendance
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edited 7th Oct 2014
Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Bill 2009 [No. 2] and related bills - Second Reading - Defer consideration
Christopher Back voted Yes, rebelling against the Liberal Party
Not passed by a modest majority
11 rebellions 92% attendance
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edited 7th Oct 2014
Business - Rearrangement - Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme legislation
Christopher Back voted No, rebelling against the Liberal Party
Passed by a modest majority
7 rebellions 83% attendance
Recent Votes
Recent votes in parliament that this Senator could have attended.
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Bills — Australian Education Amendment Bill 2017; in Committee
Christopher Back voted Yes
Passed by a small majority
No rebellions 86% attendance
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Bills — Australian Education Amendment Bill 2017; in Committee
Christopher Back voted No
Not passed by a modest majority
No rebellions 66% attendance
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Bills — Australian Education Amendment Bill 2017; in Committee
Christopher Back voted No
Not passed by a modest majority
No rebellions 63% attendance
Possible Friends
Shows which Senators voted most similarly to this one in the 2008-2010 Parliament. This is measured from 0% agreement (never voted the same) to 100% (always voted the same). Only votes that both Senators attended are counted. This may reveal relationships between Senators that were previously unsuspected. Or it may be nonsense.
| Agreement | Name | State | Party |
|---|---|---|---|
| 99% | Jo Lindgren | Queensland | Liberal Party |
| 96% | Mitch Fifield | Victoria | Liberal Party |
| 96% | Sean Edwards | SA | Liberal Party |
| 96% | David Bushby | Tasmania | Liberal Party |
| 96% | John Williams | NSW | National Party |