1978 New South Wales referendum

The 1978 New South Wales referendum was held on 17 June 1978 and contained a single question:

Do you approve of the Bill entitled 'A Bill for an Act to provide for the election of members of the Legislative Council directly by the people'.[2]

1978 New South Wales referendum[1]
Legislative Council direct election
Yes 85%
No 15%

Background

The Lang Labor government unsuccessfully attempted to abolish the Legislative Council in 1925 and 1930.[3] In 1961 a referendum to abolish the council was put to New South Wales voters however it was defeated with only 42% support.[4]

Amendments to the constitution

The headline change by the proposal was to alter the Constitution Act 1902 to provide for the members of the Legislative Council to be directly elected. The proposal included other changes, being:

  • a reduction in the number of members from 60 to 43, increasing to 44 and then 45;
  • Elections for the council to be held simultaneously with elections for the Legislative Assembly;
  • The term of members being reduced from a fixed 12 years to a maximum of 9 years; and
  • A third of members being elected at each election, rather than the previous quarter.[5]

The transitional arrangements were that the members whose terms were due to expire in 1979 or 1982 had their terms expire at the next general election, held in 1978, those members whose terms were to expire in 1985 would retire at the second general election, held in 1981, and those members whose terms were to expire in 1988 would retire at the third general election, held in 1984.[3]

Results

The question was approved with a large majority.

Result [1]
QuestionVotes%
Direct election of the
Legislative Council		 No 403,313 15.19%
Yes 2,251,336 84.81%
Total Formal 2,654,649 97.44%
Informal 69,727 2.56%
Turnout [6] 2,724,376 88.29%

See also

References
  1. "Result of referendum:A Bill for an Act to provide for the election of members of the Legislative Council directly by the people". Government Gazette of the State of New South Wales (82). 14 July 1978. p. 3009. Retrieved 7 December 2020 – via Trove.
  2. "Writ for a referendum: direct election of the Legislative Council". Government Gazette of the State of New South Wales (54). 15 May 1978. p. 1814. Retrieved 7 December 2020 – via Trove.
  3. Page, Barbara (1990). "The Legislative Council of New South Wales: Past Present and Future". Briefing Paper No. 01/1990. Retrieved 7 December 2020.
  4. "Constitution Further Amendment (Referendum) Act, 1930". Government Gazette of the State of New South Wales. 19 May 1961. p. 1510. Retrieved 26 June 2020 – via Trove.
  5. "Constitution and Parliamentary Electorates and Elections (Amendment) Act 1978 No 75" (PDF). Legislation.nsw.gov.au. Retrieved 7 December 2020.
  6. Based on a roll of 3,085,661 at the October 1978 election: Green, Antony. "1978 election totals". New South Wales Election Results 1856-2007. Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 7 December 2020.
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