1926 Australian referendum (Essential Services)

Australian Essential Services referendum, 1926
4 September 1926 (1926-09-04)
Do you approve of the proposed law for the alteration of the Constitution entitled —

"Constitution Alteration (Essential Services) 1926" ?
Results
Choice
 Votes %
Yes 1,195,502 42.80%
No 1,597,793 57.20%
Valid votes 2,793,295 94.23%
Invalid or blank votes 171,089 5.77%
Total votes 2,964,384 100.00%
Registered voters/turnout 3,254,952 91.07%

The Constitution Alteration (Essential Services) Bill 1926,[1] was an unsuccessful referendum held in 1926 that sought to alter the Australian Constitution to give the Commonwealth legislative power to protect the public from any actual or probable interruption of essential services.

Question

Do you approve of the proposed law for the alteration of the Constitution entitled 'Constitution Alteration (Essential Services) 1926'? The proposal was to alter section 51 of the Constitution as follows:

Section fifty-one of the Constitution is altered by inserting after paragraph (v.) the following paragraph :—
(v.) a. Protecting the interests of the public in case of actual or probable interruption of any essential service.[1]

Results

The referendum was not approved by a majority of voters, and a majority of the voters was achieved in only two states, New South Wales and Queensland.[2]

Result [2]
State Electoral roll Ballots issued For Against Informal
Vote % Vote %
New South Wales 1,241,635 1,131,656 545,270 50.39 536,734 49.61 49,652
Victoria 968,861 888,661 296,548 35.55 537,560 64.45 54,553
Queensland 440,632 399,664 188,473 50.56 184,320 49.44 26,871
South Australia 303,054 281,492 81,966 31.32 179,740 68.68 19,786
Western Australia 190,286 164,555 39,566 25.90 113,222 74.10 11,767
Tasmania 110,484 98,356 43,679 48.59 46,217 51.41 8,460
Total for Commonwealth 3,254,952 2,964,384 1,195,502 42.80 1,597,793 57.20 171,089
Results Obtained majority in two states and an overall minority of 402,291 votes. Not carried

References

  1. ^ a b "Constitution Alteration (Essential Services) Bill". Retrieved 22 April 2019 – via legislation.gov.au.
  2. ^ a b Handbook of the 44th Parliament (2014) "Part 5 - Referendums and Plebiscites - Referendum results". Parliamentary Library of Australia.


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