Australian referendum, 1977 (Simultaneous Elections)
The Constitution Alteration (Simultaneous Elections) 1977 was an Australian referendum held in the 1977 referendums which sought to amend the Australian constitution for the second time to ensure that elections for both houses of parliament occurred simultaneously.
Question
It is proposed to alter the Constitution to ensure that Senate elections are held at the same time as House of Representatives elections.
Do you approve the proposed law?
Results
State | On
rolls |
Ballots
issued |
For | Against | Invalid | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
% | % | ||||||
New South Wales | 3,007,511 | 2,774,388 | 1,931,775 | 70.71% | 800,331 | 29.29% | 42,282 |
Victoria | 2,252,831 | 2,083,136 | 1,325,708 | 65.00% | 713,929 | 35.00% | 43,499 |
Queensland | 1,241,426 | 1,138,842 | 534,968 | 47.51% | 590,942 | 52.49% | 12,932 |
South Australia | 799,243 | 745,990 | 480,827 | 65.99% | 247,762 | 34.01% | 17,401 |
Western Australia | 682,291 | 617,463 | 292,344 | 48.47% | 310,765 | 51.53% | 14,354 |
Tasmania | 259,081 | 246,063 | 82,785 | 34.26% | 158,818 | 65.74% | 4,460 |
Australian Total | 8,242,383 | 7,605,882 | 4,648,407 | 62.22% | 2,822,547 | 37.78% | 134,928 |
Obtained majority in three States and an overall majority of 1,825,860 votes. | |||||||
Not carried |
Discussion
This was one of several occasions that the double majority rule resulted in a referendum with a clear 'Yes' overall majority not being approved, as it failed to receive approval in a majority of States. The margin of failure, 9211 votes (in WA), made it the third closest referendum result in Australian history. Even the support of both major federal parties and most of the media was not enough to ensure success.