Free nonpartisan tools exploring Australian MPs’ voting records, expenses, donations, attendance, government tenders and social media political pulse — sourced from the AEC, Finance, AusTender, Bluesky and Mastodon.
Political Gadgets is a nonpartisan Australian transparency site providing free tools to shine a light on the political system including explore how federal MPs vote, what expenses they claim, who donates to them, how often they attend parliament, and what’s being discussed on Australian political social media.
Data is sourced from the Australian Parliament, the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC), the Department of Finance, and AusTender. All tools are free with no registration required.
Example datasets
Voting records — how every federal MP and Senator has voted on legislation
Expense claims — itemised politician expense reports from the Finance Department
Donation disclosures — AEC records showing who funds which parties and candidates
Parliamentary attendance — how often MPs show up and vote in parliament
Government tenders — federal contract awards, outsourcing spend, and consultant payments
Hansard analysis — what politicians are talking about in parliament
Downloadable databases — raw data for researchers and journalists
Bluesky political pulse — what’s being discussed on #auspol, tracked several times a day
Mastodon political pulse — what’s hot on Mastodon’s political discussion in the last 24 hours
Featured
Degrees of separation on the ASX
They say business, and life, is as much about who you know as what you know. It's arguable that's why companies pay huge sums to sit down to dinner with politicians, or give politicians free tickets to the corporate box at the tennis. Then there are the connections between businesses. This picture is all of the companies on the ASX linked by common directors. You can look at the data, zoom in, and select individual companies here.
Bluesky political pulse
We track what's being discussed on Bluesky's #auspol several times a day.
Mastodon political pulse
What's hot on Mastodon's political discussion in the last 24 hours.
News
Tender Backgrounder
Tender Backgrounder for: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
Consultant Tenders
$501,054,190 in Federal contracts to the big consultants in 2026. $28,500 yesterday. - EY: $28,500
Flights
The VIP fleet flew at least 8,398 km in the last few days. That's 2 planes doing 4 flights over 11 hrs and 14 mins and costing around $51,287.
Fed Govt Outsourced labour costs
Government Temporary Staff Tenders in the last day: $2,339,916
Donations
Strawcost made $40,000 in Federal political donations.
Double Donors
APM Human Services International donated $149,436 in 2024-25. That was $114,436 to Labor and $35,000 to the Coalition.
Votes-Like-Taylor-O-Meter
Pat Conroy (Reps, Shortland, Lab) is 18.66% Angus Taylor
Political advertising on Facebook
Total Facebook spend: $91,254 ($26,416,814 YTD)
All tenders
Fed govt contracts given today came to $28,655,865. The winner is Australian Institute of Health and Welfare ($7,371,000)
What's Parliament doing
Parliament... is not sitting today. There are committees today.
What they're talking about
Most used words in parliament on 17 Sep 2026: DEFENCE (281) VETERANS (255) PEOPLE (225) ALP (199) ...
How does the tender money flow...
YTD tenders for Australian Institute of Criminology: $1,488,132
Politician Expenses
Jana Stewart (Senate, Victoria, Labor) claimed $431,615 in expenses over the last 4 reported quarters for major categories such as travel, offices and cars. That is $168,508 less than the median.
Parliamentary attendance
Jason Wood (Reps, La Trobe, Liberal Party) attended 73% of possible votes.
Political advertising on Google
Political advertising spend with Google in last 24 hours: $7,200. (YTD: $3,547,050)
Votes-Like-Joyce-O-Meter
Andrew Giles (Reps, Scullin, Lab) is 23.17% Barnaby Joyce
We acknowledge the Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the first inhabitants of the nation and the traditional custodians of these lands.