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.
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. Constitution of House of Representatives. 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". It was defeated, with 59.75% of voters voting "No" to this question.
Question
Results
+ Result State Electoral roll Ballots issued For Against Informal Vote % Vote % New South Wales 2,315,828 2,166,507 1,087,694 1,044,458 48.99 34,355 Victoria 1,734,476 1,630,594 496,826 30.87 1,112,506 21,262 Queensland 904,808 848,728 370,200 44.13 468,673 9,855 South Australia 590,275 560,844 186,344 33.91 363,120 11,380 Western Australia 437,609 405,666 114,841 29.05 280,523 10,302 Tasmania 199,589 189,245 42,764 23.06 142,660 3,821 Total for Commonwealth 6,182,585 5,801,584 2,298,669 40.25 3,411,940 90,975 Results 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
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.