New South Wales referendum, 1961

New South Wales referendum, 1961
Legislative Council abolition	Vote %
No	57.5%
Yes	42.4%

A referendum concerning the abolition of the New South Wales Legislative Council was put to New South Wales voters on 29 April 1961. The abolition was specifically rejected by voters. The text of the question was:

An Act to Abolish the Legislative Council to provide that another Legislative Council shall not be created, constituted or established nor shall any Chamber, Assembly or House, other than the Legislative Assembly, designed to form part of the Legislative Parliament of New south Wales, be created, constituted or established until a bill for the purpose has been approved by the electors in a referendum to amend the Constitution Act, 1902 and certain other Acts; and for purposes connected therewith.^[1]

Background

See also: Philip Game

The abolition of the New South Wales Legislative Council had been on the Labor Party agenda since at least federation. However, attempts to abolish the Council did not occur until Labor Premier Jack Lang’s first term of office from 1925 to 1927. This had brought him into conflict with Governor Sir Dudley de Chair. Lang had proposed the appointment of additional members to the Legislative Council, in order to enable the abolition of the house, using the same techniques used to abolish the Queensland Legislative Council in 1922. His inability to gain control in the Upper House obstructed Lang’s legislative programme and in November 1930, claiming a mandate to abolish the Council, Labor MLCs put forward two bills, one to repeal section 7A of the NSW Constitution (which prevented the abolition of the Council without a referendum), the other to abolish the Council. Lang requested the necessary additional appointments to pass the legislation from the Governor. However, these requests were refused by De Chair's successor, Sir Philip Game.^[2]

Believing that a referendum was necessary before the bills could become law, the Legislative Council permitted the bills to pass without a division on 10 December. Lang then announced his intention of presenting the bills for Game's Royal assent without a referendum. The following day, two members of the Legislative Council, Thomas Playfair and Arthur Trethowan, applied for and were granted an injunction preventing the President of the Council, Sir John Peden, and the ministers from presenting the bills to the Governor without having held a referendum. On 23 December the Supreme Court of New South Wales in the case of Trethowan v. Peden, upheld the injunction and ordered the government not to present for royal assent, unless ratified by the electors in a referendum, bills to abolish the council.^[3] Lang immediately prepared an appeal to the High Court of Australia. In the case of Attorney-General (New South Wales) v. Trethowan, the appeal was rejected by a majority of the court. Lang then appealed this decision to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London. The privy Council then delayed the appeal until April 1932.^[4]

In March and June 1931 Lang's repeatedly requested for the necessary 80 appointments to swamp the council and prevent obstruction to his legislation. Game again refused, offering 21 appointments, which were enough to pass some of the legislation but not the most controversial bills, including the bill to default on debts.^[4] Finally, in a compromise move with Lang, on 19 November 1931 Game assented to twenty five appointments, reasoning that it would not be possible to refuse Lang's requests until the Privy Council case was resolved. The appeal was finally resolved with the judgment of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council on 31 May 1932. The judgment dismissed the appeal by the Government of New South Wales. The bills repealing Section 7A and abolishing the Legislative Council could not therefore be presented to the Governor for assent until they had been passed in a referendum.^[4] Faced with other problems, Lang's plans for abolition utlimately failed. His successor as Premier, Bertram Stevens, later passed major reforms to replace the appointed Legislative Council, by a Council elected by the whole parliament to terms equivalent to four Assembly terms. This was passed by referendum in 1933.

At the March 1962 election, Labor had been in power for 21 years and Bob Heffron had been Premier for 2 and a half years. The standing of Heffron's government suffered when the electors rejected its proposal to abolish the Council, being the first time Labor had lost a state electoral poll in 20 years. Opposition Leader Robert Askin's successful opposition campaign centred on warning of a Labor-dominated single house subject to "Communist and Trades Hall influence".^[5]

Results

The referendum was resolved in the negative, defeating the long-held Labor policy to abolish the Council.^[1] The referendum, while defeated, sparked discussion on future reform of the then-half-appointed Council, culminating in the full democratisation of the chamber in 1978 by the Neville Wran Labor Government. Since these reforms removed many of the arguments against the upper house, another question on abolition is unlikely.

	Votes	%
No	1,089,193	57.5%
Yes	802,512	42.4%
Total Formal	1,891,705
Informal	49,352
Total Votes	1,941,057

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "NSW Referendums - 29 April 1961". New South Wales Electoral Commission. http://www.elections.nsw.gov.au/results/referendums_and_polls/state/29_april_1961. Retrieved 2011-02-06. 
2. ^ "Game, Sir Philip Woolcott (1876 - 1961)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A080629b.htm. Retrieved 2010-07-24. 
3. ^ "Street, Sir Philip Whistler (1863 - 1938)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. http://adbonline.anu.edu.au/biogs/A120136b.htm. Retrieved 2010-09-22. 
4. ^ ^{a b c} A. S. Morrison (1984), "Dominions Office Correspondence on the New South Wales Constitutional Crisis 1930-1932" - PhD thesis, London.
5. ^ Hancock, Ian (2007). The Liberals: The NSW Division 1945-2000. Sydney: Federation Press. pg 105–106. ISBN 978-1-86287-659-0.