Frequently Asked Questions

Yes, Australian politicians must report their share trades through the official Register of Members' Interests.

How the Parliamentary Register Works

The Register of Members' Interests publicly documents financial interests that could conflict with a politician's public duties.

MP and Senator Disclosure Timeframes

Politicians must disclose their financial interests within 28 days of taking office.

Any changes to these interests, including new share purchases or sales, must be updated within 28 days of those changes occurring.

What Must Be Disclosed in Politician Financial Reports

• Shareholdings in both public and private companies
• Assets and interests of spouses and dependent children
• Real estate holdings
• Family trusts and investment structures
• Significant gifts and hospitality
• Debts and liabilities

Australian Disclosure System vs. Other Countries

Unlike countries like the United States, which use standardised electronic reporting forms, Australian politicians submit their disclosures as PDF documents.

This PDF-based approach leads to inconsistent formats and varying levels of detail and clarity, making it difficult for citizens to track political trading activity.

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The current Register of Members' Interests has several significant limitations that affect transparency:

• Inconsistent document formats - Many politicians upload PDFs that are blurry, poorly scanned, or in non-selectable formats
• Incomplete family disclosures - Despite requirements, some politicians don't adequately disclose the financial interests of spouses and dependents
• Complex ownership structures - Financial interests are sometimes held through trusts and other complex structures that obscure the actual investments
• Limited searchability - The official register has no search function to find specific trades or track patterns
• Delayed reporting - The 28-day disclosure window means trades may not be visible for nearly a month

PoliticianTrades.au addresses these transparency issues by extracting and standardising political trading data into a searchable, user-friendly format.

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All our political trading data comes directly from the official Register of Members' Interests.

Our team regularly monitors parliamentary disclosures for updates and performs these key steps:

• Extract trading information from often difficult-to-read disclosure PDFs
• Process and standardise data for consistent searching and analysis
• Manually review documents to ensure accuracy where automatic processing isn't possible
• Present findings in a searchable, user-friendly database

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Tracking the share trading activity of politicians is critical for democratic oversight:

• Transparency - Politicians often have access to non-public information that could influence their trading decisions
• Conflict of interest - MPs and Senators may vote on legislation that affects companies they own shares in
• Accountability - Public scrutiny helps ensure politicians are acting in the public interest rather than for personal gain
• Pattern recognition - Tracking trades over time can reveal concerning patterns that might not be obvious in individual disclosures

When politicians know their trading activities are being monitored, they're more likely to avoid problematic transactions and potential conflicts of interest.

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For more information about our mission and detailed analysis of disclosure problems, visit our About page.

To see the latest Australian politician trading activity:

• Browse our comprehensive All Trades database
• Check individual Politician profiles for their trading history
• View Companies that politicians are investing in

If you have additional questions or feedback about political trading disclosures, please contact us.

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