How the Independents have voted in the House

Voting Record in the 43rd Parliament of Australia:

 

Sitting of the 43rd Parliament of Australia resumed on 7 February 2012, with the first session for 2012 running until 16 February.

 

The Government has maintained its successful record of gaining support from the Independents on significant pieces of legislation requiring a division over the course of this Parliament so far, gaining a majority in 94% of divisions on substantive matters. To date, the Government has lost only one division on an amendment to a Bill, which was in February 2011:

 

  • Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (Public Health and Safety) Amendment Bill 2010 second reading. Adam Bandt, Robert Oakeshott and Andrew Wilkie voted with the Government, while Tony Crook, Bob Katter and Tony Windsor voted against.

 

The amended Bill subsequently passed the Parliament.

 

In the 43rd Parliament so far, the Government has successfully passed 269 pieces of legislation through the Lower House. All the Appropriation Bills from the 2011-12 Budget have passed the Parliament.

 

Recent legislation passed by the House includes:

 

  1. Fairer Private Health Insurance Incentives (Medicare Levy Surcharge) Bill 2012
  2. The Mining Resource Rent Tax Legislation Package and Petroleum Resource Rent Tax Legislation Package
  3. The Clean Energy Legislation Package and the Steel Transformation Plan Bill 2011
  4. National Health Reform Amendment (National Health Performance Authority) 2011
  5. Tobacco Plain Packaging 2011 and Trade Marks Amendments (Tobacco Plain Packaging) 2011

 

Graphs showing the outcome of votes where a division was required from 29 September 2010 to 16 February 2012, along with voting records for each Independent are available here.

 

A table showing all the divisions from 29 September to 16 February, with a brief description of the legislation or motion, number of pairs and how each independent voted is available here. Note pairs are agreed to by party whips on each day of voting.

 

Biographies of each of the House of Representatives crossbenchers are available here.

 

On 7 October 2011, the Parliamentary Library produced a background note entitled “The hung Commonwealth Parliament: the first year”, focussing on how the House has functioned procedurally and including a range on statistics relating to its work. The background note is available here.

 

Hawker Britton’s previous analysis of the voting in the 43rd Parliament is available by clicking the links below:

 

 

For more information on each division go to the House of Representatives Votes and Proceedings website.