How did your MP vote on conscience issues?

• Information about conscience votes
• How did your local Member vote?
• EMILY's List

About Conscience Votes

Conscience votes are not a comprehensive measure of a politician's values. They are usually only held on sensitive questions of life, and do not apply to other important value matters where politicians usually follow their party's line. Nonetheless, conscience votes do show how a politician approaches a significant ethical question, where their sense of values comes from, and what their personal view is on what we believe to be one of the most important questions of all: the protection of human life from conception to natural death.

Listed below is how your MP voted on a number of important Bills brought before Parliament.

EMILY's List

EMILY's List is a political network formed to increase the number of women Labor parliamentarians who are willing to support key feminist issues, including abortion. It provides financial, political and personal support to Labor women candidates who agree to support the values of EMILY's List. It is the only network of its kind in Australian politics.

EMILY's List members and candidates must support the principles of equity, diversity, pro-choice, and the provision of equal pay and childcare, both in the community and in Parliament. Many of these are significant issues but it is concerning that membership of such a network dictates a parliamentarian's vote. For example, EMILY's List members consistently support pro-abortion policies, reflecting both their personal beliefs and their membership of the List. Without exception, every ALP Federal parliamentarian named on EMILY's List voted to support the abortion drug RU486 and to permit the cloning of human embryos for destructive research.

Not all female Labor MPs or Senators are EMILY's List members. Some prominent ALP members support pro-life policies. However, if you want to support candidates who recognise the value of human life from its earliest stages then you need to know if your current representative or local candidate is a member of EMILY's List because List membership will determine her vote on these issues. Click here to find out.

• Linda Beattie – Candidate for Wakehurst
• Linda Burney – Member for Canterbury
• Verity Firth – Member for Balmain
• Penny Sharpe – Member of the Legislative Council
• Carmel Tebbutt – Member for Marrickville
• Trish Doyle – Candidate for the Blue Mountains
• Pat Boydell – Candidate for Pittwater
• Kate Washington – Candidate for Port Stephens
• Pauline Neill – Candidate for Vaucluse

What the Parties think

Public Christianity Role for the church // ICAC report // Freedom of speech

Justice & Law Marriage // Charter of rights // Violent video games // Prostitution – trafficking // Prostitution - empowering local communities // Kings Cross injecting room // Sale of x-rated material // Alcohol abuse

Poverty Poker machines – betting limits // Homelessness and housing affordability

Life Euthanasia // Palliative care // Abortion and the law // Abortion statistics

Youth & Education Education – freedom to teach // Christian religious education

Health Mental health // Disability

Integrity in Government Integrity in politics