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: Sell and Parker Pty Ltd
Consultant Tenders
$514,702,006 in Federal contracts to the big consultants in 2026. $0 yesterday.
Flights
The VIP fleet flew at least 5,430 km in the last few days. That's 3 planes doing 8 flights over 15 hrs and 34 mins and costing around $156,281.
Fed Govt Outsourced labour costs
Government Temporary Staff Tenders in the last day: $7,637,183
Donations
David Steele made $226,500 in Federal political donations.
Double Donors
Australian Hotels Association (SA Branch) donated $118,300 in 2024-25. That was $73,951 to Labor and $44,349 to the Coalition.
Votes-Like-Taylor-O-Meter
Alice Jordan-Baird (Reps, Gorton, Lab) is 78.41% Angus Taylor
Political advertising on Facebook
Political advertising on Facebook on 12 Oct: $152,934 ($32.9m so far in 2026). Top spender: These ads ran without a disclaimer ($13,533). Biggest categories: Party/Candidate $30k, Advocacy $25k, Business $25k. Full breakdown: https://politicalgadgets.com/SocialMedia/facebook_stats/2026-10-12.html
All tenders
The Fed Govt announced $142,561,273 in contracts. Top of the list was SELL AND PARKER PTY LTD ($59,037,441) SELL AND PARKER PTY LTD has received $59,687,780 in contracts this year.
What's Parliament doing
Parliament... is not sitting today. There are no committees today.
What they're talking about
Most used words in parliament on 15 Oct 2026: CARE (264) PEOPLE (240) ALP (212) SOUTH (176) ...
How does the tender money flow...
YTD tenders for Australian Centre for Disease Control: $146,069,234
Politician Expenses
David Shoebridge (Senate, NSW, Australian Greens) claimed $602,525 in expenses over the last 4 reported quarters for major categories such as travel, offices and cars. That is $45,181 less than the median.
Parliamentary attendance
Scott Buchholz (Reps, Wright, Liberal Party) attended 79% of possible votes.
Political advertising on Google
Political advertising spend with Google in last 24 hours: $23,850. (YTD: $3,885,000)
Votes-Like-Joyce-O-Meter
Varun Ghosh (Sen, WA, Lab) is 55.78% 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.