This is an abridged version focussed on climate change scorecards, of an article at nofibs.com.au detailing 39 election scorecards across multiple issues.
Still undecided after several weeks of the election campaign? Are you confused on policies? Do you have a pet issue that may influence your vote? I might have just the election issue scorecard to help you decide.
I have always been more interested in party policies than voting for the personality of a candidate or leader. Ultimately policies are what really count, although there is evidence that many electors are more influenced by appearance than policies, according to psychologist Dr Lissa Johnson in New Matilda.
Election scorecards are produced by a wide range of community, union and social policy organisations. These organisations often have a high level of policy expertise. They do the groundwork in determining key policy differentiators and scales to compare and rate the differences in political party policies.
Of course most of these organisation do come with some intrinsic social and political bias. That is up to you to take their bias into account.
Melbourne University Election Watch lists all the major policies of the Liberal Party, Labor Party and the Greens for the policy wonks that want to do their own research in detail.
While some scorecards are simple graphic images, others come with links to extensive webpages or PDFs which detail individual questions and rating methodologies. Some are online interactive websites.
One of the downsides to scorecards is they tend to focus on comparing the major parties and ignore the smaller parties. Unfortunately, if you want to vote or preference highly an Independent or minor party, it is still up to you to do your own research on candidate policies.
I have been keeping a watch for scorecards this election. Here are the ones I found presented below. As some organisations produce simple and complex scorecards, I have chosen to reproduce only the simple version below. Links to additional or supporting information are also provided where available.
You can also see how you compare with the main parties on a range of policy questions by taking the Votecompass survey on the ABC website, or YourVote survey run by Fairfax Media.
Michael Koziol at the Sydney Morning Herald reports that Major parties ignoring what young people want resulting in many of them choosing to vote Greens or other leftish minor and single issue parties. Andrew Griffiths at the ABC reports that Youth concerned about economy but rank social issues as most important.
According to the ABC Votecompass survey, Women and men split on idea of gender quotas in Parliament. Women also think that climate change action is far more important than men, according to Votecompass.
"Eighty-two per cent of female respondents to the ABC's Vote Compass felt the Federal Government should do "much" or "somewhat more" to tackle climate change, compared with just 67 per cent of men." said Erin Stewart in the ABC article Election 2016: Climate change - an election priority for women
Climate Institute
The Climate Institute has released a Climate Policy Credibility Assessment: Federal Election 2016 This is one graphic assessment of major party climate policies:
A second graph from the Climate Institute compares a number of Parties 2030 climate targets for Australia to other nations.
Climate Institute CEO, John Connor said, “Since the 2013 election, voter concern about climate change has surged almost 20 per cent to 72 per cent, a marked rebound from the lowest levels just prior to introducing the carbon pricing mechanism in 2012,” he said.
Concern and support for action is highest among the 35 per cent of people uncertain about who they will vote for. Only 17 per cent think the Coalition has a credible climate plan, with Labor only marginally higher at 20. Only eight per cent think ignoring climate change is an answer.
“Our research shows that all our political parties need to do more to develop policies that not only build credibility but also build community and investor confidence,” Connor said. “This is a critical finding, given that both major parties are promising key reviews next year amid greater domestic and international scrutiny. To that end, it is encouraging that The Coalition, Labor, Greens and Nick Xenophon Team (NXT) now all support emissions trading and renewable energy, albeit to varying degrees. At the same time, the largest climate policy credibility gaps are with the Coalition and Jacqui Lambie Network.”
Connor said the polling revealed that two thirds (65 per cent) of Australians think Australia should be a world leader in finding solutions to climate change, the highest since 2008, yet current policies make us international laggards. Almost three quarters think tackling climate change will create opportunities for new jobs and investment, including 67 per cent of Coalition supporters.
“Despite supporting the Paris agreement and its goals to avoid 1.5-2°C of global warming, if other countries adopted similar targets as the Coalition, it would lead to 3-4°C warming; Labor’s would see 2-3°C; NXT 2-3°C; while the Greens and Glenn Lazarus Team (GLT) are more aligned to the Paris goals,” he said. “The 2030 emission reduction targets of the Coalition, Labor, NXT, the Greens and GLT would have Australia ranking 18 th, 15th, 10th, 8th and 8th in the G20 respectively on an emissions per person basis.” said Connor in a media release.
Solar Citizens
Solar Citizens rate the candidates for each electorate at Solarscorecard.org.au
Australian Conservation Foundation
The Australian Conservation Foundation have rated the Labor, Coalition, Greens, Xenophon and Lazarus parties on 3 criteria: clean energy, cutting pollution, and protecting our reefs, forests and wildlife. Visit the online and interactive scorecard or Download the PDF (30 May 2016) for detailed scores.
Environment Victoria
Environment Victoria Scorecard (PDF)
Climate and Health Alliance
The Climate and Health Alliance have issued a scorecard. With incresing impacts of climate change, there is a growing need for a comprehensive health policy in this area. Read more at the Climate and Health Alliance website and media release.
Fight for the Reef
The Fight for the Reef campaign have done an Election Tracker. Here is the Final scorecard from June 29 media release from the Fight for the Reef website.
WWF
WWF have released a draft Scorecard which they will update on 29 June in final form.
Australian Religious Response to Climate Change
With the Pope issuing Laudato Si last year and statements from other major religious traditions, climate change has become a major moral issue. Australian Religious Response to Climate Change, a multi-faith group, have rated the Coalition parties, Australian Labor Party, the Greens, and the Nick Xenophon Team on Climate Fairness Policy and issued an ARRCC election scorecard.
GetUp!
Getup surveyed the major parties and the major minors such as The Greens, Nick Xenophon team, Ricky Muir, Glenn Lazarus Team, and The Sex Party on climate change, health and hospitals, and political donations. For the first time Getup is also issuing How to Vote Cards in selected marginal electorates and the Senate. More election 2016 details here. See below the climate change comparison:
Vote Climate
The Vote Climate website compares the main climate policies of the Coalition, Labor and the Greens, with Senate scorecards for 2016 being produced.
Victorian Senate
Electorate of Batman
But in the electorate of Batman, Vote Climate has produced it's own Batman climate scorecard and leafletted 50,000 copies across the electorate in the hope of affecting what may be a close result between the Greens Alex Bhathal and Labor's David Feeney. A Save the Planet climate Independent, Philip Sutton, is also running in Batman.
Electorate of Higgins
Liberal Party MP may be vulnerable in this safe seat from a three way contest with Labor and the Greens, with polling showing Jason Ball leading Labor's Carl Katter. There is the possibility of O'Dwyer losing this seat to the Greens. Here is the VoteClimate How to vote card:
Electorate of Kooyong
Liberal Party MP Josh Frydenberg is a climate blocker, hence reason to issue a VoteClimate How to vote card for his electorate.
NSW Senate
Cowper
On the mid-north coast of NSW Coffs Climate Action have rated the candidates in Cowper, with the Greens doing best, closely followed by Independents Rob Oakeshott (the former Independent MP for Lyne) and John Arkan, then Labor's Damian Wood. National Party MP Luke Hartsuyker, CDP's Wayne Lawrence, and CEC's Michael Gough all perform poorly.
AYCC New England
Australian Youth Climate Coalition (AYCC) has assessed the two primary New England candidates: Barnaby Joyce and Tony Windsor. In the AYCC scorecard they assess what each would do to protect land and water from coal and gas, promote renewable energy, and act on climate change. This was reported in the Northern Daily Leader.
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