Have your political representatives got your interests at heart?  How would you know?  Perhaps it’s time for some Report Cards.

As Citizens we vote for people and elect them to represent us, but do they really champion the causes we care about?

Local community group, The Voices for Casey is putting this question to the test.  In a bold experiment in political accountability, early in 2025, Voices for Casey (V4C) will launch a series of evidence based Report Cards for their elected representatives.

President Dr Ani Wierenga explains: Our Listening Strategy is simple.

First: We conducted a Listening Campaign, to gather over 1000 survey responses where local people explained what matters to them most.  Second: in order to amplify the voices and make them heard:  Publish a Listening Campaign Report of these survey responses. Provide a copy to Casey’s elected representatives at every level, ensuring they hear and understand our community’s priorities. Third: Hold them to it.  Develop Report Cards for all of Casey’s elected representatives which will look at their recent voting behaviour vs. the people’s priorities, to see how they stack up. 

The Report Cards are being prepared for all our representatives at Federal (1), State (3) and Local Government (9) levels. The first of these is being launched on the Voices for Casey Website on Monday 17 February, 2025.

The report cards are researched and developed by graduating students from University of Technology Sydney, through their intern placement with Voices for Casey.  For each student, this has been the final chapter on years of intense study for a combined degree in Communications, Law and Political Science. The skilled interns have been charged to take the priorities of the Electorate of Casey (as detailed in the Listening Report) as their yardstick and to systematically research Parliamentary Records, State Parliament Records and Council Records to gather a specific, comprehensive and detailed understanding of the patterns and line up the evidence. The report cards and appendix showing the details, are the result.  

Dr Wierenga explains that ‘There are lots of great report cards out there for political representatives, comparative and single issue.  But to our knowledge this is the first time a community group has lined up the evidence about a community’s priorities and then tracked elected representative voting behaviour against that. It is a live experiment in political accountability.

There’s been quite a bit of interest about the model.

The report cards are being published HERE.

Not to be confused with the City of Casey, The Federal Electorate of Casey is located in the outer eastern suburbs of Melbourne, including the Dandenong Ranges (the Hills), the bush suburban heartland (the suburbs), the Yarra Valley (the farms) and the Upper Yarra (the forests). The State Electorates of Monbulk, Eildon and Evelyn overlap, and the local government area is the Shire of Yarra Ranges.

Voices for Casey is one example of a growing network of community groups across Australia determined to get stronger representation in Parliament and people involved in their democracy.