A STUDY INTO HOW WELL POLITICIANS RESPOND TO THE CONCERNS AND IDEAS OF VOTERS

Undertaken by Votergrams, FairGO and Voterland
Study period from 21st August 2010 to 31st March 2012

Australian Parliament - House of Representatives

A new study of Federal Members of Parliament shows that 70% of MPs in the House of Representatives, representing 106 electorates did not respond to most Votergram messages from voters across Australia on a wide range of issues in the 19 months since the last Federal election on 21st August 2010.
The good news is that 30% did and that is enough for voters to have a significant impact.
Votergrams are a form of message that has been operating since March 1986 on a non-party-political basis taking any voter's message simultaneously to virtually all Members of any parliament in Australia.
The study reveals that 9% of those local MPs, including some Government ministers, used automated computer responses when replying to voters, without any personal follow-up or involvement.

Outstanding performance recognised

The study shows sensational responses by some Members of Parliament. This has been recognised by medals and stars.
The Gold Medal goes to Member for New England in NSW, Mr. Tony Windsor
Silver Medal MP is North Coast Labor Member for Page Ms. Janelle Saffin.
Bronze medal MP is Labor’s Health Minister Tanya Plibersek, member for the electorate of Sydney.

A full list of MPs who responded best is attached as Appendix 1 with their star ratings and electorates.

Independents respond best

All independent MPs responded at least to some Votergrams. The Gold Medal MP, Tony Windsor of New England was more than twice as good as the next best MP. Votergrams have confirmed that Mr. Windsor has also been the best Votergram responding Federal MP in Australia over previous parliamentary terms.
Only 26% of local members from major parties responded to Votergrams.

Labor beat Coalition overall and in safe seats

Labor politicians responded more than twice as well to Votergrams as did their Coalition colleagues.
36% of Labor politicians responded to Votergrams, whilst only 17% of Coalition MPs did so.
58% of safe Labor MPs with an electoral margin of more than 12.5% were Votergram respondents, whereas only 23% of Coalition MPs with over 12.5% electoral margin responded to Votergrams.

Greens

Showing up the major parties again, the only Australian Greens MP in the House of Representatives, Adam Bandt, received three stars for his responsiveness to voters.

Few politicians in the most marginal seats responded but Coalition just beat Labor

Of MPs in the seats with a margin of less than 5%, responses were paltry whereas one might have expected these MPs to work hardest for voters in order to build popularity.
Only 4 out of 18 Labor MPs in that category responded. That is 22%.
Only 5 out of 22 Coalition MPs in that category responded. That is 23%.

Excuses for not responding don't wash with voters

A common excuse given by politicians for not responding to voters outside their own electorates was that they give priority to their own constituents. However, this is a very narrow interpretation of an MPs work (see outline per Parliamentary infosheet later). According to Votergram founder, Mr. Greg Bloomfield, Most ordinary voters cannot expect to influence what government does or receive better treatment from government by just communicating with their one local member. Voters wanting change need to persuade a majority of MPs that their idea is good for Australia and MPs need to engage with voters in this debate. Those wanting assistance need to find MPs willing to assist, which their local MP may not do for a variety of reasons.
This excuse about giving priority to local electorate voters may be just a smokescreen. Votergrams founder, Mr. Greg Bloomfield, in the Federal electorate of Bradfield stated that My own Federal MP did not answer Votergrams I sent him during this 19 month period, so I relied on the many other MPs who did. Even when their local MP ignores them, most voters will receive some responses from other MPs who see this as part of their parliamentary duties in running the country.
Another excuse given is the volume of emails. MPs have had well over a decade in which to deal with email volumes. It is notable that some of those with the least resources perform far better for voters than many others sharing vast party resources.
It is not a staffing issue, as the politicians themselves determine how much of the voters own tax money will be used to employ staff to help engage with voters.

Unresponsive electorates

Few if any responses to Votergrams sent in the last 19 months on the important topics listed earlier were received from MPs representing voters in the electorates listed in Appendix 5.

Federal Parliamentary Infosheet

The sheet, issued in October 2010, specifies the work of Members of the Federal House of Representatives as:-
An ombudsman and facilitator who deals with concerns about government matters;
A law maker;
An examiner of the Government and how it spends the money it raises from taxation;
a contributor to debates on national issues
Their three roles are described as that of parliamentarian, constituency representative and party member.

It says One of a Member's most important skills is communicating receiving, understanding and evaluating information from many sources, and passing on information and opinions in Parliament and elsewhere to the Government and to individuals and groups.

Two Speed Parliament

The contrasting performance identified in this study suggests that some Members of Parliament may be failing in their duty, whilst others are brilliant.
Some backbenchers and busy Ministers, like Health Minister Tanya Plibersek perform extremely well, whilst many other ministers and backbenchers languish unresponsively.

Appendix 1 - Best responding politicians

Appendix 2 - Rating system

Points were awarded as follows and did not relate to whether or not the MP agreed with the voter:

0               No response at all
1               Standard response of a general nature by MP or staff
2               Response written by MP or staff and specifically related to the issue raised by the voter
3               Exceptionally good or helpful response from the MP or staff

This raw data which remains confidential to protect privacy, has been converted into ratings:-

Gold Medal MP – Top Respondent
Silver Medal MP – Runner up Top Respondent
Bronze Medal MP – Third placed respondent
3 star MPs – next 25% of responding MPs
2 star MPs – next 60% of responding MPs
1 Star MPs – next 15% of responding MPs












 

Appendix 3

How the requests were delivered to Members of Parliament

All MPs except the Prime Minister who does not accept emails, were sent Votergrams on the same topics, at the same time, by the same voters, so all MPs had an exactly equal opportunity to assist the voters.

Appendix 4 - Topics covered by Votergrams

poker machine losses,
residential planning for an increasing population,
truck safety, rail freight transport
sex slavery,
Qantas worker and executive comparative pay rates,
an overseas student wrongly detained by immigration officials,
live cattle export cruelty,
carbon tax,
alcohol,
women's health,
mental health,
international price discrimination against Australia,
flying foxes and orchard netting,
family law property settlement provisions,
corporate compliance with corporate law,
same sex marriage,
farm financial issues,
military forces,
war in Afghanistan
questionable banking practices.

















 

Appendix 5 – unresponsive electorates where there were few if any responses from the Federal MP

 

 

 

HONOUR ROLL OF POLITICIANS

New South Wales
Most responsive politicians - Parliamentary term ending March 2011

Responsive Politicians Praised

In the past term of the NSW parliament, six MPs have stood head and shoulders above the rest in terms of responsiveness to voters, no matter where they live, on a range of issues.

Best responding MP in NSW during the current Parliamentary term was the Liberal Member for Davidson, Mr. Jonathan O’Dea.

Second was retiring Liberal Member for Hornsby, Ms. Judy Hopwood.

Third was the Labor Attorney General, and Upper House MP Mr. John Hatzistergos. This is no mean feat for a person with ministerial responsibilities.

The remaining three in alphabetical order were:

Independent Member for Tamworth, Mr. Peter Draper

Labor Minister for Education and Member for Balmain, Ms. Verity Firth

Retiring Liberal Member for Baulkham Hills Mr. Wayne Merton

FairGO director, Mr. Greg Bloomfield congratulated and thanked the six MPs saying “ We thank these six Members of Parliament for the exceptional way in which they have responded to voters. If all politicians responded to voters this way, NSW would enjoy very good government."
 

Australian Federal Parliamentary Elections - August 2010

Windsor wins again!!

Independent New  England MP, Tony Windsor has been the best responding MP in the Federal Parliament to voters from around Australia during the past three year parliamentary term.

Not only that. Mr. Windsor has taken that title in each of the last three terms of parliament.

New England voters must be very proud and pleased with their local member. With some of the best agricultural land in the state and the country music capital in the electorate, the people of New England have done themselves proud.

Top three rankings for responsiveness to voters included NSW Labor Member for Sydney, Minister for the Status of Women and Minister for Housing, The Honourable Tanya Plibersek and Ms. Melisa Parke, Labor Member for Fremantle.

Because voters use FairGO's Votergram system which takes each message simultaneously to every politician in parliament who provides an email address, this is the only assessment able to accurately compare one politician against the other, one party against the other, across Australia.

FairGO congratulates and thanks Mr. Tony Windsor, The Honourable Tanya Plibersek and Ms. Melissa Parke on their concern and consideration for voters everywhere.

To many MPs hide under the excuse of only replying to their constituents. That is a vote getter for them, for sure. However, once elected they form a parliament to make decisions for all Australians. They are quite happy to meet party donors and those who pay big prices at fund-raising dinners from out of their electorates, so they should be equally able to respond to those ordinary Australians having trouble with government or wanting to have government services improved.

That they are overwhelmed by emails is a lame excuse. Parliament controls members staffing levels. When more voters can relate to the politicians there is a need to simply increase staffing levels to cope. Perhaps also to allocate more staff time to the well being of the Australian people and less to spinning news for the benefit of politicians and their parties. 

 

 

 

Media Contact: Greg Bloomfield, National Director, FairGO in Sydney on 02 9988 3312 or 0428 417 496.