The rubber-stamp factory (II)

Warning! Math ahead!

This chart shows a clever bit of figgerin' we'll call the Rubber Stamp Index, for each session of the Bow-Wow Parliament since the dawn of its internet age, ten long years ago.

You may wonder what you are looking at. And you'd be right. Our super-clever Rubber Stamp Index is calculated by the following formula:

RSI = (A + B)/C

where A is the percentage of all bills which reached Third Reading before the end of the next calendar day after First Reading (in some cases, later on the first day); B is the percentage of all bills which passed Third Reading which did so without amendments; and C is the average number of calendar days between First and Third Reading.

Bills which did not receive Third Reading are excluded from consideration. Data for the current session is provisional, and only includes bills which were introduced at First Reading before the six-month "summer" recess began in June.

The higher the values for A and B, and the lower the value for C, the more rubber-stampery the session of the legislature.

Here's the raw data:

                 (A)    (B)    (C)     RSI
44-2nd. 2000     22%    95%    14.3    8.2
44-3rd. 2001-02  13%    82%    19.3    4.9
44-4th. 2002     26%    70%    86.7    1.1
44-5th. 2003      0%   100%    13.9    7.2
45-1st. 2004     29%    86%    12.5    9.2
45-2nd. 2005     25%    93%    13.8    8.6
45-3rd. 2006     31%    94%     4.9   25.5
45-4th. 2007     19%    77%    11.5    8.4
46-1st. 2008      9%    96%    14.1    7.5
46-2nd. 2009      7%    92%    13.6    7.2
46-3rd. 2010*    16%    87%    27.9    3.7