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 Australian referendum 27 May 1967
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 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   Yes     No
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	On rolls	Ballots issued	For		Against		Invalid	Result
				%		%
New South Wales	2,315,828	2,166,507	1,087,694	51.01	1,044,458	48.99	34,355	Yes
Victoria	1,734,476	1,630,594	496,826	30.87	1,112,506	69.13	21,262	No
Queensland	904,808	848,728	370,200	44.13	468,673	55.87	9,855	No
South Australia	590,275	560,844	186,344	33.91	363,120	66.09	11,380	No
Western Australia	437,609	405,666	114,841	29.05	280,523	70.95	10,302	No
Tasmania	199,589	189,245	42,764	23.06	142,660	76.94	3,821	No
Total for Commonwealth	6,182,585	5,801,584	2,298,669	40.25	3,411,940	59.75	90,975	No
Obtained majority in one state and an overall minority of 1,113,271 votes.
Not carried

See also

• Referendums in Australia
• Politics of Australia
• History of Australia

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

• Austats Special Article on the History of Pensions and other Benefits in Australia
• Standing Committee on Legislative and Constitutional Affairs (1997) Constitutional Change: Select sources on Constitutional change in Australia 1901–1997. Australian Government Printing Service, Canberra.
• Bennett, Scott (2003). Research Paper no. 11 2002–03: The Politics of Constitutional Amendment Australian Department of the Parliamentary Library, Canberra.
• Australian Electoral Commission (2007) Referendum Dates and Results 1906 – Present AEC, Canberra.