CommoNZ is a database of conscience votes in the New Zealand Parliament past and present, where MPs do not vote on party lines. It is nonpartisan and has no agenda.
It contains all votes for the 2002-05 term and important earlier votes, as well as all votes as they occur in the current term.
Know how your representatives voted.
The database has been updated with the new Parliament and electorate data, and the first two conscience votes of this term from earlier this month (Misuse of Drugs (Medicinal Marijuana) Amendment Bill and Liquor Advertising (Television and Radio) Bill).
Friday April 13 2007The site's been moved across to a new server; it should be running faster now.
Tuesday November 28 2006I've put up a little about page to provide a bit of an explanation of who's doing this and why. I was motivated by revelations that the Maxim Institute's similar (but smaller) database was linked to the National Party campaign, and wanted to make perfectly clear that we were not similarly encumbered.
Friday October 27 2006There have been a few updates behind the scenes lately, which are still ongoing. If you run into errors, wait a few minutes and try again. Everything should be running faster, especially the comparisons.
All the votes so far from this term have been added, too, and a couple of corrections in the Prostitution Reform Act's tally. Which in the process of fixing, led me to discover that Maxim stole the data for their comparisons from here, because they have exactly the same errors. Still.
Thursday December 8 2005New bill: the Marriage (Gender Clarification) Amendment Bill was voted down last night. It was technically a party vote, rather than a conscience one, but as parties split their votes in accordance with their relative numbers I've added it anyway.
There was one minor problem with this however: the Maori Party cast all their votes in opposition, but was only entitled to cast three votes (of their usual four) as they had members absent from the house. All members of the party have been recorded as opposed.
Wednesday November 9 2005Another (restored) feature: the "super search" is back, letting you search multiple bills at a time, with restrictions on votes for each, party, majority, all sorts. Lots of fun.
With that, the feature set of the old database is back and the site is ready to open fully. Tell your friends. And if you'd like to help out, a couple of people to help editing the database are presently being sought after, especially with the initial fleshing out of biographies and dates. Flick a note from one of the suggestion boxes on an MP page if you're interested.
Sunday November 6 2005New to the database are the Homosexual Law Reform Act, Abolition of the Death Penalty Act, and Casino Control (Moratorium Extension) Amendment Act. Thanks to Idiot/Savant of No Right Turn for collating the data.
As well, there's a new feature: you can compare how you'd vote, to how your elected representatives did. You need to register first (it allows the results to cache, reducing server drain), but it does throw up some interesting matches.