1946 Australian referendum (Industrial Employment)

Constitution Alteration (Industrial Employment) 1946 was an Australian referendum held in the 1946 referendums which sought to alter the Australian Constitution to give the Commonwealth legislative power over the terms and conditions of industrial employment but not so as to authorise any form of industrial conscription. The question was narrowly rejected.

Question

Do you approve of the proposed law for the alteration of the Constitution entitled 'Constitution Alteration (Industrial Employment) 1946'?

Results

Result

State	On rolls	Ballots issued	For		Against		Informal	Result
				%		%
New South Wales	1,858,749	1,757,150	833,822	51.72	778,280	48.28	145,048	Yes
Victoria	1,345,537	1,261,374	609,355	52.08	560,773	47.92	91,246	Yes
Queensland	660,316	612,170	243,242	43.42	316,970	56.58	51,958	No
South Australia	420,361	399,301	179,153	48.20	192,516	51.80	27,632	No
Western Australia	300,337	279,066	142,186	55.74	112,881	44.26	23,999	Yes
Tasmania	154,553	144,880	52,517	41.37	74,440	58.63	17,923	No
Armed Forces*		37,021	20,445	55.23	15,239	41.16	1337
Total for Commonwealth	4,739,853	4,453,941	2,060,275	50.30	2,035,860	49.70	357,806	Yes
Obtained majority in three States and an overall majority of 24,415 votes.
Not carried

* Armed forces totals are also included in their respective states.

Discussion

This was one of the few occasions when an overall national majority was evident, albeit by a small margin, but no state majority was reached resulting in the referendum being not carried.

See also

• Politics of Australia
• History of Australia

Further reading

• Standing Committee on Legislative and Constitutional Affairs (1997) Constitutional Change: Select sources on Constitutional change in Australia 1901–1997. Australian Government Printing Service, Canberra.
• Handbook of the 44th Parliament (2014) "Part 5 - Referendums and Plebiscites". Parliamentary Library of Australia.
• Bennett, Scott (2003). Research Paper no. 11 2002–03: The Politics of Constitutional Amendment Australian Department of the Parliamentary Library, Canberra.
• Australian Electoral Commission (2007) Referendum Dates and Results 1906 – Present AEC, Canberra.