1991 New South Wales referendum

A referendum concerning reform of the New South Wales Legislative Council was put to New South Wales voters on 25 May 1991. The referendum coincided with that year's New South Wales general election. The change passed comfortably. The text of the question was:

Do you approve of the Bill entitled 'A Bill for an Act:

(a) to reduce the number of politicians in the Legislative Council and to reduce their maximum term of office; and

(b) to apply to the Legislative Council the same method of filling casual vacancies as applies to the Senate ?

1991 New South Wales referendum
Legislative Council reform Vote
Yes 57.7%
No 42.3%


Amendments to the constitution

At the time of the referendum, the Legislative Council consisted of 45 members, with 15 members elected at each election and members serving for three terms of the Legislative Assembly, giving a maximum term of 12 years. If a casual vacancy arose, the member was replaced by the next unelected candidate and it was only if the candidates were exhausted that the party could nominate a candidate at the election was declared.

The headline changes by the proposal were to alter the Constitution Act 1902 to:

  • reduce the total number of members from 45 to 42;
  • reduce the term of members from three to two terms of the Legislative Assembly, reducing the maximum term from 12 to 8 years; and
  • increase the number of members elected at each election from 15 to 21, the effect of this was that the quota of votes to be elected would be reduced from 6.25% to 4.55%.
  • require casual vacancies to be filled by appointment of a candidate nominated by the same political party.[1][2]

The transitional arrangements were that from the 1991 election, the council would consist of:

From the next election, scheduled to be in 1995, the council would consist of:

Results
Result [3][4]
QuestionVotes %
Legislative Council reform Yes 1,864,293 57.73
No 1,364,840 42.27
Total Formal 3,229,133 95.02
Informal 169,417 4.98
Turnout [lower-alpha 2] 3,400,092 93.58

Legislative Council referendums

This was the fourth referendum in New South Wales on the subject of the Legislative Council.

This table is an excerpt from 1933 New South Wales referendum § Subsequent referendums.[edit]
Legislative Council referendums [5]
Referendum Yes No
(4) 1933 reform Legislative Council 51.47%     48.53%    
(7) 1961 abolish Legislative Council        42.42%     57.58%
(11) 1978 directly elect Legislative Council 84.81% 15.19%
(14) 1991 reduce size of Legislative Council   57.73% 42.27%

See also

Notes
  1. There is a difference of less than 300 votes in the results published in the Gazette and those subsequently published by the Electoral Commission. The results from the Gazette have been used.
  2. Based on a roll of 3,631,618: Green, Antony. "1991 election totals". New South Wales Election Results 1856-2007. Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 10 December 2020.

References
  1. "Constitution (Legislative Council) Amendment Act 1991 No 20" (PDF). Legislation.nsw.gov.au. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
  2. "Explanatory note: Constitution (Legislative Council) Amendment Bill 1991". Retrieved 10 December 2020 – via AustLII.
  3. "Result of referendum: Legislative Council reform". Government Gazette of the State of New South Wales. No. 94. 20 June 1991. p. 4773. Retrieved 10 December 2020 – via Trove.
  4. "NSW Referendum - 25 May 1981". New South Wales Electoral Commission. Archived from the original on 11 March 2011.[lower-alpha 1]
  5. "Results of referendums in New South Wales". Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 25 October 2021.
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