1974 Australian referendum (Democratic Elections)
The Constitution Alteration (Democratic Elections) 1974 was an Australian referendum held in the 1974 referendums which sought to require the size of electorates in state Legislative Assemblies and the federal House of Representatives to be based on overall population. This would replace alternative methods of distributing seats, such as by population of electors or weighting for geographical size. Country electorates sometimes had significantly lower overall populations ("people counts") than city electorates.[1]
Question
Proposed law entitled "An Act to alter the Constitution so as to ensure that the members of the House of Representatives and of the parliaments of the states are chosen directly and democratically by the people".
Do you approve the proposed law?
Results
State | On
rolls |
Ballots
issued |
For | Against | Invalid | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
% | % | ||||||
New South Wales | 2,834,558 | 2,702,903 | 1,345,983 | 50.55% | 1,316,837 | 49.45% | 40,083 |
Victoria | 2,161,474 | 2,070,893 | 970,903 | 47.71% | 1,064,023 | 52.29% | 35,967 |
Queensland | 1,154,762 | 1,098,401 | 474,337 | 43.70% | 611,135 | 56.30% | 12,929 |
South Australia | 750,308 | 722,434 | 310,839 | 44.11% | 393,857 | 55.89% | 17,738 |
Western Australia | 612,016 | 577,989 | 241,946 | 42.86% | 322,587 | 57.14% | 13,456 |
Tasmania | 246,596 | 237,891 | 95,463 | 40.81% | 138,430 | 59.19% | 3,998 |
Australian Total | 7,759,714 | 7,410,511 | 3,439,471 | 47.20% | 3,846,869 | 52.80% | 124,171 |
Obtained majority in one State and an overall minority of 407,398 votes. | |||||||
Not carried |
See also
References
- Australian Parliament House. "Part 2 – History of Australian Referendums" (PDF). Australian Parliament House. Retrieved 4 May 2017.
- Australian Parliament House. "Part 2 – History of Australian Referendums" (PDF). Australian Parliament House. Retrieved 4 May 2017.