World War I conscription in Australia
During the second half of World War I, the First Australian Imperial Force experienced a shortage of men as the number of men volunteering to fight overseas declined and the casualty rate increased. At the time, military service within the Commonwealth of Australia and its territories was compulsory for Australian men,[1] but that requirement did not extend to conflict outside of Australia. In 1916, Prime Minister Billy Hughes called a plebiscite to determine public support for extending conscription to include military service outside the Commonwealth for the duration of the war. The referendum, held on 28 October 1916, narrowly rejected the proposal. A second plebiscite, held a year later on 20 December 1917, also failed (by a slightly larger margin) to gain a majority.[2][3]
The referendums caused significant debate and division in Australian society, and within the government. Hughes called the first referendum against the advice of his own Labor government, which led to the Labor Party splitting, with Hughes and others forming a new National Labor Party.[4]
Conscription controversy[edit]
Commonwealth Defence Act 1909[edit]
The Commonwealth Defence Act 1909 established that, from 1 January 1911, all males aged from 12 to 26 years of age would have to undergo compulsory military training for the defence of Australia. It did not require them to participate in any war overseas.
First conscription referendum (1916)[edit]
There was widespread opposition to this so-called "boy conscription",[5] but the major conscription controversy began in 1916, after Prime Minister Billy Hughes had visited the war front. On his return to Australia, he declared his view that conscription was needed to supply the Australian forces with a sufficient number of soldiers.
Opposition to his proposal from within the governing Labor Party led Hughes to propose a plebiscite to decide the issue. The campaign surrounding the plebiscite deeply divided the nation, and meetings organised by the pro- and anti-conscription camps were attended by large crowds. Hughes' stand led to his expulsion from the Labor Electoral League of New South Wales during the campaign, and Labor's council for the West Sydney electorate, the area which Hughes had represented in state and federal parliaments since 1894, also voted for his expulsion.
The plebiscite, held on 28 October 1916, asked Australian voters: