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Status active
Type 🏛️ civic tech
Country 🇦🇺 AU
Website theyvoteforyou.org.au
Concepts Radical Transparency Accountability Sink E Government
Last activity 2026-06-22 manual
Confirmed active via OpenAustralia Foundation project page

They Vote For You

They Vote For You tracks every recorded division in Australia's House of Representatives and Senate and turns the Hansard record into plain-English voting histories for each MP and Senator. It flags when a member crosses the floor against their own party, summarises what each vote was actually about, and lets users compare any two politicians by how similarly they vote.1

The site launched in 2014 with seed funding from Google, built by Henare Degan, Matthew Landauer, Luke Bacon and Katherine Szuminska under the OpenAustralia Foundation.2 It is a direct descendant of the UK's Public Whip project (Francis Irving and Julian Todd, 2003) — the same lineage that produced mySociety's TheyWorkForYou.1

Bragg and Sharma dispute (2021–22)

The site's independence was tested ahead of the 2022 federal election. In November 2021, Liberal Senator Andrew Bragg and MP Dave Sharma complained to the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission and the Australian Electoral Commission, arguing the site mischaracterised their records — for example, listing Bragg as having voted against LGBTQI+ protections and an Indigenous Voice despite his public advocacy for marriage equality and a book supporting the Voice. The AEC complaint, about a missing "authorised by" disclosure, was dismissed.2

In March 2022, Bragg's lawyer threatened legal action under the Australian Consumer Law for "misleading and deceptive conduct." The foundation published the letter despite its "confidential" marking and responded point by point: the site only records formal divisions from Hansard, many votes go unrecorded because they happen "on the voices," and symbolic motions aren't weighted differently from substantive ones. Pro-bono lawyer Michael Bradley of Marque Lawyers advised the foundation it had no liability, and director Matthew Landauer maintained the site was non-partisan throughout.3

See also

  1. "About", They Vote For You. ↩↩

  2. "OpenAustralia Foundation", Wikipedia. ↩↩

  3. OpenAustralia Foundation, "Senator for NSW Andrew Bragg threatens OpenAustralia Foundation with legal action", 23 March 2022. ↩