View source for 1961 New South Wales referendum

{{Use Australian English|date=June 2020}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2020}}
{{infobox referendum
| title         = Do you approve of the Bill entitled—<br><br>''"A Bill for 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."'' ?
| date          = {{start date|1961|04|29|df=y}}
| country       = New South Wales
| yes           =   802,512
| no            = 1,089,193
| invalid       =    49,352
| electorate    = 2,075,268
| outcome       = 
}}
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:
<blockquote>Do you approve of the Bill entitled "A Bill for 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."<ref name="NSWEC Results 1961"/>{{refn|name=Results}}</blockquote>
{{clear}}

==Background==
The abolition of the New South Wales Legislative Council had been on the [[Australian Labor Party (New South Wales Branch)|Labor Party]] agenda since at least federation. However, attempts to abolish the Council did not occur until Labor Premier [[Jack Lang (Australian politician)|Jack Lang]]'s first term of office from 1925 to 1927. 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, [[Philip Game|Sir Philip Game]].<ref name=adb>{{Cite AuDB |title=Game, Sir Philip Woolcott (1876 - 1961) |id2=game-sir-philip-woolcott-6272 |access-date=9 April 2019}}</ref>

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 Alfred John Playfair|Thomas Playfair]] and [[Arthur Trethowan]], applied for and were granted an injunction preventing the President of the council, [[John Beverley Peden|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 bills to abolish the council for royal assent, unless ratified by the electors in a referendum.<ref>{{cite AustLII|NSWStRp|90|1930|litigants=Trethowan v Peden |parallelcite=(1930) 31 [[State Reports New South Wales|SR (NSW)]] 183 |date=23 December 1930 |courtname=[[Supreme Court of New South Wales|Supreme Court (Full Court)]]}}.</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite AustLII|HCA|3|1931|litigants=[[Attorney-General (New South Wales) v Trethowan]] |parallelcite=[http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/HCA/1931/3.pdf (1931) 44 CLR 394] |courtname=[[High Court of Australia|High Court]]}}.</ref> 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.<ref name=asm>{{citation |first=A S |last=Morrison |year=1984 |title=Dominions Office Correspondence on the New South Wales Constitutional Crisis 1930-1932 |work=PhD thesis |location=London}}</ref> 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]].<ref>{{cite BAILII |litigants=[[Attorney-General (New South Wales) v Trethowan#Privy Council|Attorney-General (New South Wales) v Trethowan]] |year=1932 |court=UKPC |num=1 |parallelcite=[1932] [[Appeal Cases Law Reports|AC]] 526}}; {{cite AustLII|UKPCHCA|1|1932|parallelcite=(1932) 47 [[Commonwealth Law Reports|CLR]] 97 |courtname=auto}}</ref> 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.<ref name=asm/> Faced with other problems, Lang's plans for abolition ultimately failed. His successor as Premier, [[Bertram Stevens (politician)|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 [[1933 New South Wales referendum|referendum in 1933]].

However upon [[Robert Heffron]]'s elevation as premier in 1959, which followed an approved motion from the 1958 state conference, Heffron reanimated the longstanding Labor policy to abolish the [[Legislative Council of New South Wales]] by announcing a statewide referendum on this question. Heffron had long supported this policy from his Langite days, seeing the council as an outdated bastion of conservative privilege, a position that was echoed by trade union official and member of the Legislative Council, [[Tom Dougherty (union official)|Tom Dougherty]], who had pushed through a rule at the 1952 state conference that banned [[Member of the Legislative Council|MLCs]] from becoming members of the state party executive.<ref name="Williams-p323">{{cite book|last=Williams|first=Evan|title=The Premiers of New South Wales, 1856-2005: Volume 2|year=2006|publisher=The Federation Press|location=Leichhardt|isbn=9781862875494|pages=323|editor=David Clune, Ken Turner|chapter=Robert James Heffron}}</ref> However, Heffron's efforts found themselves up against significant opposition, not only from the Liberal and Country parties but also within the Labor party itself. Indeed, when the 'Constitution Amendment (Legislative Council Abolition) Bill' came before the Legislative Council on 2 December 1959, the council resolved 33 votes to 25 to send it back to the Legislative Assembly on the grounds that such a bill should have originated in the council. This was passed with the support of seven Labor councillors [[crossing the floor]] (including [[Cyril Cahill]], [[Anne Press]] and [[Donald Cochrane (politician)|Donald Cochrane]]), who were all subsequently expelled from the party.<ref name=Lovelock36>{{cite book |title=New South Wales Legislative Council Practice |year=2008 |publisher=The Federation Press |location=Leichhardt |isbn=9781862876514 |page=36 |last=Lovelock |first=Lynn |last2=Evans |first2=John}}</ref>

On 6 April 1960, Heffron attempted to send the bill back to the council, which returned it to the assembly on the same grounds as before. As a result of the deadlock, Heffron requested the Governor to order a joint session of parliament on 20 April, a session which lasted two hours and was boycotted by the opposition. On 12 May the Assembly resolved that the bill be submitted for a referendum.<ref name=Lovelock36/> However, later that day the leader of the opposition in the Legislative Council, [[Hector Clayton]], started legal action against the government on the grounds that under section 5B of the NSW Constitution, the council had neither voted nor deliberated on the bill and thus the bill could not be submitted for a referendum.<ref name=Lovelock36/> In the case of ''Clayton v. Heffron'' (1960) the full bench of the [[Supreme Court of New South Wales]] found in favour of the government on the grounds that they had complied fully with the intention of section 5B,<ref>''Clayton v Attorney-General for New South Wales'' {{citation |url=https://nswlr.com.au/view-pdf/1960-NSWR-592 |title=(1960) {{abbr|NSWR|New South Wales Reports}} 592}} (20 September 1960), [[Supreme Court of New South Wales|Supreme Court (Full Court)]] (NSW).</ref> while the [[High Court of Australia|High Court]] denied the plaintiff [[High Court of Australia#Appellate jurisdiction|special leave to appeal]].<ref>{{cite AustLII|HCA|92|1960|litigants=Clayton v Heffron |parallelcite=(1960) 105 [[Commonwealth Law Reports|CLR]] 214 |date=15 December 1960 |courtname=[[High Court of Australia|High Court]]}}.</ref> In January 1961, Heffron announced the date of the referendum for 29 April 1961. However, despite the lack of time allocated for a campaign, the Liberal/Country opposition led by [[Robert Askin]] spearheaded a strong campaign centred on warnings of a Labor-dominated single house subject to "Communist and Trades Hall influence".<ref>{{cite book |last=Hancock |first=Ian |title=The Liberals: The NSW Division 1945-2000 |publisher=Federation Press |year=2007 |location=Sydney |pages=105–106 |isbn=978-1-86287-659-0}}</ref>

==Results==
The referendum was resolved in the negative, defeating the long-held Labor policy to abolish the council.<ref name="NSWEC Results 1961"/>
{| class="wikitable" align="center" 
|+ Result{{hsp}}<ref name="NSWEC Results 1961">{{Gazette NSW |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article220280260 |title=Constitution Further Amendment (Referendum) Act, 1930 |date=19 May 1961 |access-date=26 June 2020 |page=1510 |via=Trove}}</ref>
|-----
! colspan="2" style="text-align:left" | Question !! Votes !! %
|-
! rowspan="2" style="text-align:left" | Legislative Council abolition
! style="text-align:left;padding-right:1em" | Yes
	| align="right" | 802,512
	| align="center" | 42.42
|-
! style="text-align:left" | No
	| align="right" | 1,089,193
	| {{shade|max=150|57.58}}
|-
! colspan="2" style="text-align:right" | Total Formal
	| align="right" | 1,891,705
	| align="center" | 97.46
|-
! colspan="2" style="text-align:right" | Informal
	| align="right" | 49,352
	| align="center" | 2.54
|-
! colspan="2" style="text-align:right" | [[Voter turnout|Turnout]]{{hsp}}<ref>Based on a roll of 2,075,268 at the 1959 state election: {{cite NSW election |title=1959 election totals |year=1959 |district=Totals |access-date=26 June 2020}}</ref>
	| style="text-align:right;padding-left:1em" | 1,941,057
	| style="text-align:center;padding-left:1em;padding-right:1em" | 93.53
|}

==Aftermath==
This would be the last attempt to abolish the council and, as the first time the NSW Labor party had lost a state poll in many years, was widely seen as the beginning of the end for the Labor government, which had been in power since 1941. Heffron's supporter Dougherty resigned from the council a month later in protest at the result.<ref name="Dougherty NSW Parl">{{Cite NSW Parliament |id=1633 |name=Mr Tom Nicholson Pearce Dougherty (1902–1972) |former=Yes |access-date=9 April 2019}}</ref> The referendum, while defeated, sparked discussion on future reform of the then indirectly elected Council, culminating in the [[1978 New South Wales referendum|1978 referendum]] which overwhelmingly endorsed the reforms proposed by the [[Neville Wran]] Labor Government including the direct election of members.<ref name="Results 1978">{{Gazette NSW |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article219956233 |title=Result of referendum: A Bill for an Act to provide for the election of members of the Legislative Council directly by the people |issue=82 |date=14 July 1978 |access-date=7 December 2020 |page=3009 |via=Trove}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Green|first=Antony |author-link=Antony Green |date=2007-03-21|title=Legislative Council history |url=https://www.abc.net.au/elections/nsw/2007/guide/lc_history.htm|access-date=2021-08-08|website=www.abc.net.au|language=en-AU}}</ref> Since these reforms removed many of the arguments against the upper house, another question on abolition is unlikely.

{{Excerpt|1933 New South Wales referendum|Subsequent referendums|only=table}}

== See also ==
* [[Referendums in New South Wales]]
* [[Referendums in Australia]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{New South Wales elections}}

[[Category:1961 elections in Australia]]
[[Category:1961 referendums]]
[[Category:Referendums in New South Wales]]
[[Category:April 1961 events in Australia]]
[[Category:1960s in New South Wales]]