1974 Australian referendum (Mode of Altering the Constitution)
The Constitution Alteration (Mode of Altering the Constitution) Bill 1974,[1] was an unsuccessful proposal to alter the Australian Constitution to make it easier to amend the constitution and give voters in the Australian territories the right to vote in referendums. It was put to voters for approval in a referendum held on 18 May 1974.
The bill to amend the constitution was passed by the House of Representatives however it was rejected by the Senate.[1] Instead the referendum was put to voters using the deadlock provision in Section 128.[2] Since federation, voters in territories had been excluded from voting in referendums. The proposal would have meant that their votes counted towards the national majority, but not towards any state total.
Question[edit]
Proposed law entitled "An Act to facilitate alterations to the Constitution and to allow electors in territories, as well as electors in the states, to vote at referendums on proposed laws to alter the Constitution".
Do you approve the proposed law?
Discussion[edit]
This referendum attempted to alter the way in which the results of referendum questions would be tallied. The votes of residents of territories was to be included in the national totals for deciding national majority and a majority of voters in only three of the six states would need to vote 'yes', rather than four out of six as in previous referendums.
Prior to this referendum, there were three referendum questions in which a majority of voters nationwide and the majority of voters in fewer than four states voted 'yes', which resulted in rejection of these questions. Had this modification been in place, two out of three of these questions would have carried. Additionally, in the two instances following this referendum where a majority of voters nationwide and the majority of voters in fewer than four states voted 'yes', only one of these outcomes would have been changed had this modification been in place.
A similar question without the modification to the double majority rule was put to referendum in 1977 Australian referendum (Referendums), and was carried strongly. Given this, and examining the results of this question it can be inferred that the states with small populations were unwilling to give up their power for the sake of giving votes to territorians.