1967 Australian referendum (Parliament)

The first part of the 1967 Australian referendum to change the Constitution was the Parliament question, which related to the relative number of members in each house of the Australian Parliament − the so-called "nexus". The 1967 Australian referendum called by the Holt government on 27 May 1967 consisted of two parts, with the second question relating to Aboriginal Australians.

This article is about the first part of the 1967 referendum, increasing the number of Members in the House of Representatives. For the second part, regarding certain matters on Indigenous Australians, see 1967 Australian referendum (Aboriginals).
1967 Parliament referendum
27 May 1967 (1967-05-27)
Question 1
Do you approve the proposed law for the alteration of the Constitution entitled—

'An Act to alter the Constitution so that the number of members of the House of Representatives may be increased without necessarily increasing the number of Senators'?
Results
Choice
 Votes  %
Yes 2,298,669 40.25%
No 3,411,940 59.75%
Valid votes 5,710,609 98.43%
Invalid or blank votes 90,975 1.57%
Total votes 5,801,584 100.00%
Registered voters/turnout 6,182,585 93.84%
Results by state
Note: Saturation of colour denotes strength of vote

Section 24 of the Australian Constitution requires that the number of members in the House of Representatives be, as nearly as possible, twice the number of members in the Senate.[1] The most important effect of the "nexus" in the Australian Constitution is to prevent the dilution of the collective voting power of the Senate, which represents the Australian states equally, in any joint sitting of both houses following a double dissolution election. The nexus ensures that Senators will always have about one-third of the votes in a joint sitting, and Members of the House of Representatives about two-thirds. The referendum question asked the public to vote on whether "the number of members of the House of Representatives may be increased without necessarily increasing the number of Senators".[2] It was defeated, with 59.75% of voters voting "No" to this question.

Question

Do you approve the proposed law for the alteration of the Constitution entitled 'An Act to alter the Constitution so that the number of members of the House of Representatives may be increased without necessarily increasing the number of Senators'?

Results
Result[3]
State Electoral roll Ballots issued For Against Informal
Vote  % Vote  %
New South Wales 2,315,828 2,166,507 1,087,694 51.01 1,044,458 48.99 34,355
Victoria 1,734,476 1,630,594 496,826 30.87 1,112,506 69.13 21,262
Queensland 904,808 848,728 370,200 44.13 468,673 55.87 9,855
South Australia 590,275 560,844 186,344 33.91 363,120 66.09 11,380
Western Australia 437,609 405,666 114,841 29.05 280,523 70.95 10,302
Tasmania 199,589 189,245 42,764 23.06 142,660 76.94 3,821
Total for Commonwealth 6,182,585 5,801,584 2,298,669 40.25 3,411,940 59.75 90,975
Results Obtained majority in one state and an overall minority of 1,113,271 votes. Not carried

See also

References
  1. Constitution (Cth) s 24 Constitution of House of Representatives.
  2. Constitution Alteration (Parliament) 1967 and Constitution Alteration (Aboriginals) 1967: The arguments for and against, Commonwealth of Australia, 6 April 1967, retrieved 3 June 2020 – via Trove
  3. Handbook of the 44th Parliament (2014) "Part 5 - Referendums and Plebiscites - Referendum results". Parliamentary Library of Australia.

Further reading

 

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