Part of the Politics series |
Direct democracy |
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In Australia, referendums (also spelt referenda)[1] are public votes held on important issues where the electorate may approve or reject a certain proposal. In contemporary usage, polls conducted on non-constitutional issues are known as plebiscites, with the term referendum being reserved solely for votes on constitutional changes, which is legally required to make a change to the Constitution of Australia.[2][3][4][5]
In the past, however the terms were used interchangeably,[6][7][8] with the non-constitutional 1916 Australian conscription referendum and the 2009 Western Australian daylight saving referendum being examples.
Voting in a referendum is compulsory for those on the electoral roll, in the same way that it is compulsory to vote in a general election. As of 2023, 45 nationwide referendums have been held, only eight of which have been carried. Of those eight, all but one had bi-partisan support.[9][10] Since multiple referendum questions are often asked on the same ballot, there have only been 20 separate occasions that the Australian people have gone to the polls to vote on constitutional amendments—of which 8 have been concurrent with a federal election.[11] There have also been three nationwide non-constitutional plebiscites (two on conscription and one on the national song), and one postal survey (on same-sex marriage).