Methodology & Disclaimer

Data Sources

• Voting records: Division results sourced via TheyVoteForYou.org.au (OpenAustralia Foundation), which in turn sourced from the Parliament of Australia.
• Financial disclosures: Donation records sourced from the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) Transparency Register.
• Legislation: Bill titles, statuses, and summaries sourced from the Parliament of Australia (APH.gov.au).
• Expenses: Parliamentarian expense records sourced from the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority (IPEA) via data.gov.au.
• Lobbying: Former government representative disclosures sourced from the Federal Register of Lobbyists (Attorney-General's Department).
• Geographic data: Electorate boundaries and census data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

All source data is public. PollieStats does not create, alter, or supplement government records — it aggregates and links them. Errors in source data will be reflected here.

Thematic Correlation Algorithm

“Thematic Correlation Overlap” cards are generated by an automated algorithm, not by human researchers. The process is:

1. Issue tagging: Votes and bills are tagged with issues (Environment, Finance, Health, etc.) by matching titles and keywords. Tagging is imprecise and may misclassify or omit relevant records.
2. Financial linkage: Donor organisations and lobbying clients are matched to issue categories using keyword heuristics. These matches are approximate.
3. Overlap detection: The algorithm identifies cases where a politician voted on a tagged issue and received donations or lobbying from the same category within a time window.

Overlap cards represent a statistical co-occurrence — not an allegation of influence, impropriety, or any causal relationship. Every card displays its own caveat. The algorithm has known limitations and may produce false positives.

AI-Assisted Content

Some summaries, plain-English explanations, or issue tags on this site may be generated with the assistance of large language models (AI). Where AI has contributed to displayed content it is labelled AI-assisted.

AI-generated content may contain factual errors, mischaracterisations, or hallucinations. It has not been independently verified and should not be relied upon as authoritative. AI-assisted content is provided for general orientation only.

Legal Disclaimer

Nothing on PollieStats constitutes legal, financial, electoral, or professional advice.

PollieStats is an independent civic transparency project. It is not affiliated with any political party, government body, or advocacy organisation. The site does not endorse or oppose any candidate, party, or political position.

Correlation analysis, AI-generated summaries, and automated data matching are inherently imperfect. PollieStats makes no warranty — express or implied — as to the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for purpose of any information displayed. Use of this site is at your own risk.

Listings on this site reflect declared public records only. Appearing in a correlation card, a donations table, a lobbying register, or an expense report does not constitute an allegation of wrongdoing, corruption, or unethical conduct. Elected representatives and private individuals have the right to respond to data disputes — see below.

To the extent permitted by law, PollieStats and its operators accept no liability for any loss or damage arising from reliance on information presented on this site.

Reporting Errors

If you believe a record is inaccurate, misattributed, or should be disputed, use the “Report a data issue” link on any politician profile page. Disputes are logged in our DataDispute table and reviewed manually.

Source data errors should also be reported to the originating agency (AEC, IPEA, APH, etc.) so that the public record can be corrected at its root.