1926 Australian referendum (Essential Services)

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Australian Essential Services referendum, 1926
Flag of Australia (converted).svg
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%
Check-71-128-204-brightblue.svg Yes1,195,50242.80%
Light brown x.svg No1,597,79357.20%
Valid votes2,793,29594.23%
Invalid or blank votes171,0895.77%
Total votes2,964,384100.00%
Registered voters/turnout3,254,95291.07%

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.

Contents

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:

Proposed Changes to the Constitution

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]
StateElectoral rollBallots issuedForAgainstInformal
Vote%Vote%
New South Wales1,241,6351,131,656545,27050.39536,73449.6149,652
Victoria968,861888,661296,54835.55537,56064.4554,553
Queensland440,632399,664188,47350.56184,32049.4426,871
South Australia303,054281,49281,96631.32179,74068.6819,786
Western Australia190,286164,55539,56625.90113,22274.1011,767
Tasmania110,48498,35643,67948.5946,21751.418,460
Total for Commonwealth3,254,9522,964,3841,195,50242.801,597,79357.20171,089
ResultsObtained majority in two states and an overall minority of 402,291 votes.Not carried

References

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


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