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1913 Australian referendum (Monopolies)

Field	Value
name	1913 Australian Nationalization of Monopolies referendum
title	Do you approve of the proposed law for the alteration of the Constitution entitled —
"Constitution Alteration (Nationalization of Monopolies) 1912" ?
date
country	Australia
yes	917,165
no	941,947
invalid	171,658
electorate	2,760,216

"Constitution Alteration (Nationalization of Monopolies) 1912" ? The Constitution Alteration (Nationalization of Monopolies) Bill 1912, was an unsuccessful referendum held in 1913 that sought to alter the Australian Constitution to give the Commonwealth legislative power in respect to monopolies.

Issues

Question

Do you approve of the proposed law for the alteration of the Constitution entitled 'Constitution Alteration (Nationalization of Monopolies) 1912'?

Proposed Changes to the Constitution

The proposal was to alter the text of section 51 of the Constitution to read as follows: (substituted text in bold)

**51a. (1) When each House of the Parliament, in the same session, has by resolution, passed by an absolute majority of its members, declared that the industry or business of producing, manufacturing, or supplying any specified services, is the subject of a monopoly, the Parliament shall have power to make laws for carrying on the industry or business by or under the control of the Commonwealth, and acquiring for that purpose on just terms any property used in connexion with the industry or business.** :**(2) This section shall not apply to any industry or business conducted or carried on by the Government of a State or any public authority constituted under a State.**

Results

The referendum was not approved by a majority of voters, and a majority of the voters was achieved in only three states.

State	Electoral roll	Ballots issued	For	Against	Informal	Vote	%	Vote	New South Wales	Victoria
1,036,187	717,855	301,192	46.85	341,724		73,683
830,391	626,861	287,379	49.07	298,326		40,828
363,082	280,525	139,019		117,609	45.83	23,676
244,026	195,463	91,411		86,915	48.74	16,920
179,784	132,149	64,988		57,184	46.81	9,644
106,746	80,398	33,176	45.22	40,189		6,907
noWrap	2,760,216	noWrap	2,033,251	noWrap	917,165	49.33	noWrap	941,947	noWrap	171,658
Obtained majority in three states and an overall minority of 24,782 votes. Not carried

Discussion

The 1911 referendum asked a single question that dealt with the acquisition of monopolies. This resolution separated laws in relation to monopolies and the acquisition of monopolies into different questions. Like its forebear, neither resolution was carried. On each of the many occasions a similar question was asked at a referendum the public decided not to vest power in the Commonwealth over these matters.

1911 referendum on monopolies

References

"Constitution Alteration (Nationalization of Monopolies) Bill 1912".
(25 April 1913). "Notification of the receipt of a Writ for a Referendum". Commonwealth of Australia Gazette.

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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