Australian referendum, 1967 (Parliament)

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

One of the two parts of the Australian referendum, 1967 was a question relating to the relative number of members in each house of the Australian Parliament − the so-called "nexus". Section 24 of the Australian Constitution requires that the number of members in the House of Representatives be, as nearly as possible, no more than twice the number of members in the Senate.

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.

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 [1]
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

References

Further reading

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