Methodology

How we collect, clean, cross-reference, and publish the data on this site.

Principles

  1. Every number is attributable. No figure appears on the site without a traceable source.
  2. No original interpretation as fact. We surface patterns; we don't assert motive.
  3. Public data only. Nothing on this site was obtained privately. Everything is from official public records, FOI releases, or published reporting.
  4. Correlation is not causation. When we show a donation next to a contract, we're showing a pattern. Not a claim.
  5. Right of reply. The Statement Tracker records public responses from named entities.

Sources (in order of weight)

Primary (government-published)

  • Budget Paper 4 — State Capital Program (annual) — the definitive source for project TEI, delivery entity, and completion dates.
  • VAGO Major Projects Performance Reports (2022, 2023, 2024) — independent audit findings on project performance.
  • DTF Capital Investment Dashboard — quarterly updates between budget papers.
  • DTF Statement of Finances — state debt, interest, revenue.
  • VLGGC council questionnaires (9 years) — council financial returns.
  • LGPRF indicators (22,776 per reporting period) — council performance data.
  • AEC disclosure returns — political donations, financial year by financial year.

Secondary (public but derivative)

  • Parliamentary committee transcripts and tabled documents.
  • FOI releases (our own and those published by others).
  • PBO (Parliamentary Budget Office) costings.
  • Watson SC report (for CFMEU Building Industry cost analysis).

Tertiary (reporting — used only as lead, never as sole source)

  • Media reporting, always attributed and always checked against a primary source before a claim appears on the dashboard.

Cross-referencing

The most important analytical work on this site is joining separate public datasets. For example:

  • Matching AEC donor names to BP4 contractor names requires normalising corporate name variants (trading names, subsidiary rollups, ABN checks).
  • Matching council expenditure to road-condition indicators joins two separate VLGGC/LGPRF feeds.
  • Matching contractor directors to politician associates uses ASIC data and public registers.

Where our matching is confident we call it "verified". Where it is probabilistic we mark it "candidate match". Anything we can't confirm, we don't publish.

Updates

  • Budget Paper 4 is ingested within 7 days of each annual release.
  • AEC disclosures are ingested each February after the annual release.
  • VLGGC and LGPRF are ingested after each reporting period closes.
  • Project status (RAG) updates follow VAGO and DTF publication dates.

Errors

We will publish corrections on the GitHub issues page and carry forward a note on the affected page. If you find an error, tell us.

Last reviewed: 11 Apr 2026