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1913 Australian referendum (Corporations)

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Australian Corporations referendum, 1913
31 May 1913 (1913-05-31)
Do you approve of the proposed law for the alteration of the Constitution entitled —

"Constitution Alteration (Corporations) 1912" ?
Results
Choice Votes %
Yes 960,711 49.33%
No 986,824 50.67%
Valid votes 1,947,535 95.90%
Invalid or blank votes 83,235 4.10%
Total votes 2,030,770 100.00%
Registered voters/turnout 2,760,216 73.57%

The Constitution Alteration (Corporations) Bill 1912, was an unsuccessful proposal to alter the Australian Constitution to extend the Commonwealth legislative power in respect to corporations that was put to voters for approval in a referendum held in 1913.

Question

Do you approve of the proposed law for the alteration of the Constitution entitled "Constitution Alteration (Corporations) 1912"?

The proposal was to alter the text of section 51 of the Constitution to read as follows:

51. The Parliament shall, subject to this Constitution, have Legislative power to make laws for the peace, order, and good government of the Commonwealth with respect to:

(xx.) Foreign corporations, and trading or financial corporations formed within the limits of the Commonwealth:
Corporations, including
(a) the creation, dissolution, regulation, and control of corporations ;
(b) corporations formed under the law of a State, including their dissolution, regulation, and control; but not including municipal or governmental corporations, or any corporation formed solely for religious, charitable, scientific, or artistic purposes, and not for the acquisition of gain by the ,corporation or its members ; and
(c) foreign corporations, including their regulation and control :

Results

Result 
State Electoral roll Ballots issued For Against Informal
Vote % Vote %
New South Wales 1,036,187 717,855 317,668 46.79 361,255 53.21 37,676
Victoria 830,391 626,861 298,479 49.14 308,915 50.86 19,139
Queensland 363,082 280,525 146,936 54.31 123,632 45.69 9,736
South Australia 244,026 195,463 96,309 51.34 91,273 48.66 7,664
Western Australia 179,784 132,149 66,595 52.84 59,445 47.16 5,776
Tasmania 106,746 80,398 34,724 45.08 42,304 54.92 3,244
Total for Commonwealth 2,760,216 2,033,251 960,711 49.33 986,824 50.67 83,235
Results Obtained majority in three states and an overall minority of 26,113 votes. Not carried

Discussion

The 1911 referendum asked a single question that dealt with trade and commerce, corporations and industrial matters. This resolution separated each of those matters into a different question. Like its forebear, none of these resolutions were 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.

See also

References

  1. "Constitution Alteration (Corporations) Bill 1912". Retrieved 22 April 2019 – via legislation.gov.au.
  2. "Notification of the receipt of a Writ for a Referendum". Commonwealth of Australia Gazette. No. 30. 25 April 1913. pp. 1097–8 – via www.legislation.gov.au..
  3. "Result of the Referendum". Commonwealth of Australia Gazette. No. 55. 2 August 1913. p. 1792 – via www.legislation.gov.au.
  4. ^ Handbook of the 44th Parliament (2014) "Part 5 - Referendums and Plebiscites - Referendum results". Parliamentary Library of Australia.
  5. Huddart, Parker & Co Ltd v Moorehead [1909] HCA 36, (1909) 8 CLR 330

Further reading

Australia Federal elections and referendums in Australia
Federal elections
Constitutional Convention
Referendums
See also: By-elections
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