Plain-spoken answers to the questions we get most.

Backbench reads federal bills and regulator releases in Australia and the United States — the Federal Register of Legislation and Hansard, the ACCC, ASIC, Congress.gov, the Federal Register, FEC disclosures — and, where your postcode or ZIP flags it, your state member, U.S. representative and local council. It doesn’t cover parliamentary commentary, opinion columns, or what any one politician said on the morning shows. The point is the law and the regulator record, not the news cycle around it.

Your profile (interests, postcode or ZIP, MP or representative) and reading history stay on your account and are never sold or shared with a campaign, party or consultancy. The legislative and regulator sources we monitor are public records, and the plain-English summaries we attach to them belong to your account. You can delete your profile at any time from your account page and the underlying record is gone the same day. Read our privacy note →

One dollar a month, billed in the currency of your region — Australian dollars for residents of Australia, U.S. dollars for residents of the United States. Early-bird waitlist subscribers keep that launch price for as long as they stay subscribed. There are no per-bill, per-seat or per-add-on charges — the price you see on the pricing page is the only price.

Yes. Backbench isn’t affiliated with, funded by, or directed by any political party, campaign, lobby group or government relations firm. It’s a small product built in Queensland and shipping to Australia and the United States, paid for by its own subscribers — which is the only constituency it answers to.

From the link in your first receipt email — anytime, no phone call, no retention screen, no per-cancel fee. Cancellation is immediate and you keep access to your digest for the period you’ve already paid for. There’s also a pause option if you’d rather step away for a month or two while travelling — you stay on the books, the charges stop, and the same profile is still there when you switch back on.

Each morning, active subscribers receive a 90-second email that mixes three things: the day’s U.S. general-news headlines matched to their selected topics, the morning’s NFL and NBA headlines from ESPN, Fox Sports, NFL Network and NBA.com, and the bills and regulator releases from their district. Every item is attributed to the original publisher — the plain-English summary is Backbench’s, and the “Read on …” link takes you to the source. Each email also includes a Manage preferences link (to toggle news, sports or the digest itself) and an Unsubscribe link that pauses delivery without deleting the profile.