Instantly find the latest records of political gifts and donations from these industries:
What is Influence Engine?
Democracy should be transparent and accessible for everyone.
Influence Engine is a groundbreaking search tool that exposes the influence of harmful industries in Australia.
It works like any search engine, allowing anyone to see exactly what gifts politicians have received, from tickets to sporting event s and major concerts , to alcohol and accommodation.
It also shows financial ties such as shareholdings between politicians and harmful industries like alcohol, gambling and fossil fuels.
By using tools like the Influence Engine, we create an environment for greater accountability which contributes to a stronger democracy.
What is industry influence?
“Industry influence” essentially refers to the practice of lobbying, where individuals or organisations attempt to sway government decisions and policies.
They may work to persuade lawmakers to support specific laws or to try stall laws that aren’t favourable to them. Activities of influence can include things like political donations and providing gifts.
Corporations and lobby groups work to protect their profits and undermine and delay any evidence-based policy.
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Learn more about the Influence Engine
Influence Engine operates like other search engines you might be familiar with: you enter search terms, and relevant results are generated.
You can search Influence Engine for politicians’ register of interest, such as holding shares in corporations or receiving gifts or hospitality.
Influence Engine automatically scrapes data from the Parliamentary Registers of Interest every 24 hours and makes this data searchable.
Without this tool, the Registers have to be manually searched, taking many hours.
The Parliamentary register of interests is a public record of politicians’ gifts, assets and income that could be a conflict of interest to their duty as an elected official.
All politicians elected to the federal parliament are required to provide a statement disclosing shareholdings, trusts, real estate, gifts and hospitality.
They are uploaded to the federal government’s website.
Without transparency, there is no democracy.
At the moment, the influence of billion-dollar corporations casts a shadow over political decision-making – too often resulting in elected leaders choosing industry interests over health and wellbeing.
When we create greater accountability, we build a stronger democracy. That’s where Influence Engine comes in – it is a tool that allows quick analysis of political gifts and donations to uncover conflicts of interest between decision-makers and powerful corporations.
At the moment, Influence Engine only searches the federal register of interests and does not search any state of territory registers.
We welcome any feedback or ideas for improvement. You can contact us at info@fare.org.au.
Influence Engine produces search results dating back to the 43rd Australian Parliament.
This work was made possible with the financial support of Mannifera, and was undertaken by the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (FARE) in partnership with the Alliance for Gambling Reform (AGR), with expert advice from Dr Jenny Lacy-Nichols. The bespoke application was designed and developed by Dr Aleem Uddin and CEPHEI Consultants.
