Category Archives: OpenAustralia Foundation

They Vote For You – What new policies would you like to see?

They Vote For You now has over one hundred policies to help us keep track of how our representatives are voting on our behalf! They range from whether to have a Royal Commission into banking to whether to legalise same-sex marriage, and you can find them all on your representative’s voting record. For example, here’s […]

Also posted in They Vote For You | Tagged , , , , , , , | 9 Responses

Setting sail for the second half of 2016

A couple of weeks ago we had our third planning session for 2016. These quarterly planning sessions allow us to reflect on the work we’ve been doing and make any adjustments we need during the year. This post is a little update on what we discussed and what we’ll be working on from July through […]

Also posted in Planning | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Our response to the ‘Electronic voting in the House of Representatives’ Report

Back in March, we submitted our views to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Procedure’s inquiry into electronic voting. And their Final Report is out now! Our submission outlined the benefits that electronic voting could bring by creating a fuller voting record, which increases accountability and transparency. Unfortunately, the Committee didn’t quite see it […]

Also posted in They Vote For You | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Rebels in the ranks? Hardly.

Members of parliamentary parties rarely cross the floor, because parties expect loyalty from their team members. … [Crossing the floor] may be seen to be giving greater preference to the needs of the electorate than the needs of the party. … A member of parliament who crosses the floor may be considered a traitor to […]

Also posted in They Vote For You | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

What we’ve got planned for 2016

A few weeks ago we had our second planning session of 2016. As we mentioned in our last planning update we needed to have our usual quarterly review but we also needed to finalise our overall plan for the year. It was a really tough day. Whittling down the huge laundry list of things we […]

Also posted in Planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

They Vote For You and the Open Government Partnership (OGP) – Continued

Back in mid-March, we announced that They Vote For You was getting into the Open Government Partnership (OGP) action. We started by developing policies related to the Anti-Corruption Working Group: For creating a federal Anti-Corruption Commission For restricting donations to political parties We then looked at the Public Resources Working Group and came up with […]

Also posted in They Vote For You | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

OpenAustralia Foundation in residence at Frontyard Projects

A photo posted by FRONTYARD (@frontyardorg) on Mar 16, 2016 at 5:07am PDT A few weeks ago my partner Lisa and I were checking out the Marrickville Open Studio Trail (MOST). MOST is a wonderful initiative organised by my local council, Marrickville Council, where over 50 local studios and galleries have open days over the […]

Also posted in Event, PlanningAlerts.org.au | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

What we’ve been up to so far in 2016

It’s the eve of our second planning session for 2016. Tomorrow we’ll be deciding what to work on for the next 3 months and scheduling it in. We’ve been getting in the habit of writing a blog post with a quick retrospective of our previous quarter and laying out the plans for the next one. […]

Also posted in Planning | Tagged | Leave a comment

Our submission to the Inquiry into procedures for counting and reporting the vote in a division

These are the buttons Ukrainian MPs use to vote *cough* @AboutTheHouse @AuSenate *cough* #auspol #qt #parliament pic.twitter.com/j69R72a248 — Henare Degan (@henaredegan) November 13, 2015 If you follow this blog, or our projects like OpenAustralia.org.au or They Vote For You, you’ll know that we work hard to increase peoples’ access to information about what goes on […]

Also posted in OpenAustralia.org, They Vote For You | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

They Vote For You and the Open Government Partnership (OGP)

In July Australia will submit its first National Action Plan to the Open Government Partnership (OGP). These National Action Plans are lists of concrete commitments to advance open government in an OGP member country over a two year period by improving transparency, participation, and accountability. The commitments are co-created by the government and civil society. […]

Also posted in They Vote For You | Tagged , , , | 1 Response