GST: track every vote, every speech, every proposition - why we built our policy tracker
- The Quarry has launched a policy tracker to monitor Guernsey's tax reform debate, bringing together transcripts, votes, amendments, and proposals on one platform
- The project faced technical hurdles including missing vote records, broken links on the Parliament website, and difficulties extracting data from official Hansard documents
- The tracker allows users to see propositions, amendments, speech highlights, and voting records, with filters to follow individual deputies' positions
- Future plans include expanding the tracker to other key issues and linking politicians' current positions to their election campaign statements
- The tool aims to improve democratic accountability and transparency, complementing The Guernsey Record's existing civic resources including planning developments and FOI requests
How Guernsey reforms its tax system to pay for public services will be the fundamental debate of this term, just as it was in the last administration.
That Assembly failed to make any major inroads, twisting and turning before passing on a red hot baton.
All through this process there is a question of trust and accountability - two things that only come with light and visibility in what is proposed, what is said, and how politicians vote.
That has been hard to find because of the way it is all presented, on different websites, buried behind menus and links or in documents you need to download.
Earlier this year The Quarry embarked on a project to produce a policy tracker, and the tax debate was the obvious initial target.
We wanted to bring together the transcripts of what politicians said in debates, how they voted, the alternatives they proposed and the core policy proposals all on one platform.
There were a few hurdles.
States debates are documented in a Hansard, but stripping what was said from the documents to surface it can be a messy process.
We asked for text files to help, they were not forthcoming.
We found links on the Parliament website that went to the wrong documents, the data migration was not clean.
There is one missing vote entirely on that website.
There is also the nature of debates and votes themselves. Backing an amendment might not mean you necessarily support everything in it, or maybe is about ensuring it is in play so you can make up your mind.
There is also a lot of information, including debates that spanned over separate months.
What resulted is the opening attempt at a policy tracker which we hope to expand to other key issues this term so the public can follow what is said at each step, and come election time have a resource to hold deputies to account with.
You can see propositions, amendments, speech highlights and votes that link to them, full text (a little messy), and filter down to individuals to follow their actions.
In time we could marry up statements from the election campaign to see how consistent someone is, or if they do change positions, how they explain and justify that.
This is a free resource, but if you see its value, please become a paid member so we can continue this type of work.
Ultimately we want to develop this in parallel with The Guernsey Record, adding a democratic accountability tool to what is already a growing resource on civic life in Guernsey.
On The Guernsey Record you can quickly find out what building development is proposed near where you live, read and make freedom of information requests, find local journalism, public notices and depending on your subscription use our drafting and analysis tools.
Local media has a vital role to play in surfacing information that would otherwise remain hidden - please support us in that.
Q&A
Q: What problem does The Quarry's policy tracker solve?
A: The tracker addresses the difficulty of finding and accessing information about politicians' positions, speeches, and votes on Guernsey's tax reform debate, which was previously scattered across different websites, buried in menus, or requiring document downloads. It consolidates transcripts, votes, amendments, and proposals on one platform.
Q: What technical challenges did The Quarry encounter when building the tracker?
A: The team faced several obstacles including difficulty extracting data from Hansard documents, the States refusing to provide text files to help, broken links on the Parliament website leading to wrong documents, unclean data migration, and one vote record missing entirely from the official website.
Q: How might the policy tracker be used to hold politicians accountable in the future?
A: The tracker will allow users to compare politicians' current positions and votes with their election campaign statements, track consistency over time, and see how deputies explain or justify changes in their positions. It will serve as a resource for voters to hold deputies accountable during election time.
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