---
title: OpenAustralia Foundation
type: civic tech
status: active
country: AU
website: https://www.openaustraliafoundation.org.au
logo: /assets/org-logos/open-australia-foundation.png
contact:
  checked: 2026-08-01
  email: contact@oaf.org.au
  form: https://www.openaustraliafoundation.org.au/contact
  source: https://www.openaustraliafoundation.org.au/contact-us
summary: An Australian civic technology charity building tools that help citizens
  understand and engage with their parliament and government.
concepts:
- radical-transparency
- e-government
- accountability-sink
location:
  latitude: -33.8688
  longitude: 151.2093
  name: Sydney, Australia
  precision: city
rss_feed: https://www.openaustraliafoundation.org.au/feed
events:
- date: '2009-07-07'
  title: Founded by Matthew Landauer and Katherine Szuminska
  url: https://oaf.org.au/2009/07/07/announcing-the-openaustralia-foundation/
  quote: OpenAustralia Foundation Limited is officially incorporated as a company
    limited by guarantee.
  proof_level: high
  url_checked: '2026-08-10'
  notable: true
- date: '2009-12-21'
  title: Launched PlanningAlerts
  url: https://oaf.org.au/2009/12/21/launching-our-new-website-planning-alerts/
  quote: '21 December 2009 Launching our new website: Planning Alerts'
  proof_level: high
  url_checked: '2026-08-10'
  notable: false
- date: '2014-10-21'
  title: Launched They Vote For You, tracking Australian parliamentary voting records
  url: https://oaf.org.au/2014/10/21/they-vote-for-you/
  quote: today the OpenAustralia Foundation is launching a new site They Vote for
    You
  proof_level: high
  url_checked: '2026-08-10'
  notable: true
activity:
  rss:
    date: 2026-08-10
    note: 'Latest post: Why does democracy need a library?'
    url: https://oaf.org.au/2026/08/10/why-does-democracy-need-a-library/
    checked: 2026-08-17
last_checked: '2026-06-02'
---

The OpenAustralia Foundation is a non-partisan charity whose work centres on making Australian parliamentary and government information accessible and usable. They build and maintain several well-known tools:

- **[They Vote For You](they-vote-for-you.md)** — tracks how every MP and Senator votes on legislation
- **[OpenAustralia](https://www.openaustralia.org.au)** — makes parliamentary debates searchable and followable
- **[Right To Know](https://www.righttoknow.org.au)** — a platform for making and tracking Freedom of Information requests
- **[Planning Alerts](https://www.planningalerts.org.au)** — notifies citizens of development applications near them

The foundation's model is to take government data that is technically public but practically inaccessible and present it in a form ordinary people can actually use. This kind of infrastructure work is foundational to an informed democratic public.

The foundation's independence has been tested. In 2021–22, Liberal MPs Andrew Bragg and Dave Sharma complained to regulators and then threatened legal action over [They Vote For You](they-vote-for-you.md)'s representation of their voting records, arguing it was misleading. Landauer maintained the site was non-partisan and acknowledged it was constrained to recording formal votes only — not the public positions MPs take outside the chamber.[^oaf-wiki]

## Key people

**Matthew Landauer** and **Katherine Szuminska** co-founded the foundation in 2009.[^oaf-wiki] Landauer has served as director and is the public face of the organisation, including during the 2021–22 controversy over They Vote For You's accuracy.

## Links

- Website: [openaustraliafoundation.org.au](https://www.openaustraliafoundation.org.au)
- Wikipedia: [OpenAustralia Foundation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenAustralia_Foundation)

[^oaf-wiki]: "It was established in 2009, co-founded by Matthew Landauer and Katherine Szuminska." and "federal Liberal MPs Andrew Bragg and Dave Sharma accused They Vote for You of distorting their voting records," ["OpenAustralia Foundation"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenAustralia_Foundation), Wikipedia.

## See also

- [Radical Transparency](../concepts/radical-transparency.md)
- [E-Government](../concepts/e-government.md)
- [Accountability Sink](../concepts/accountability-sink.md)
- [They Vote For You](they-vote-for-you.md) — flagship voting-record tracker
- [Code for Australia](code-for-australia.md)
- [mySociety](mysociety.md) — UK sister organisation