1903 New South Wales referendum

A referendum concerning the reduction of the members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly was put to voters on 16 December 1903, in conjunction with the 1903 federal election. The referendum was conducted on the basis of optional preferential voting. However, preferences were not counted, as an overwhelming majority voted to reduce the number of members to 90.[1]

1903 New South Wales referendum
16 December 1903
As to what shall be the number of Members of the Legislative Assembly.

Which of the following numbers do you prefer, and what is the order of your preference?
Results
Choice
 Votes  %
Reduce to 90 206,273 72.95%
Reduce to 100 13,316 4.71%
Maintain at 125 63,171 22.34%
Valid votes 282,760 87.21%
Invalid or blank votes 41,484 12.79%
Total votes 324,244 100.00%
Registered voters/turnout 345,500 93.85%

The question

The text of the question was:[2]

As to what shall be the number of Members of the Legislative Assembly.

Which of the following numbers do you prefer, and what is the order of your preference?

   125 (This is the present number.)
 100
 90

Results

The referendum was overwhelmingly in favour of reducing the number of members to 90.

Result [3]
QuestionVotes %
What should be the
number of Members
of the Legislative Assembly		 Maintain at 125 63,171 22.3
Reduce to 100 13,316 4.7
Reduce to 90 206,273 72.9
Total Formal 282,760 87.2
Informal 41,484 12.8
Turnout [4]     324,244   96.32  

Aftermath

The referendum did not provide how the reduction of members was to occur. Parliament was recalled to decide how to give effect to the referendum,[5] and passed the Electorates Redistribution Act 1904 which provided the districts were to be determined by three electoral districts commissioners.[6] The proposed districts were published by the commissioners on 18 March 1904,[7] and the final districts were published on 22 April 1904.[8]

See also

References
  1. "1904 Redistribution". Atlas of New South Wales. NSW Land & Property Information. Archived from the original on 23 June 2015.
  2. Reduction of Members Referendum Act 1903 (PDF).
  3. "Result of the referendum". Government Gazette of the State of New South Wales. No. 25. New South Wales, Australia. 12 January 1904. p. 341. Retrieved 7 December 2019 – via Trove.
  4. Estimate based on a roll of 345,500 at the 1901 state election: Green, Antony. "1901 election totals". New South Wales Election Results 1856-2007. Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 12 October 2021.
  5. "Summons: recall of parliament". Government Gazette of the State of New South Wales. No. 35. 19 January 1904. p. 481. Retrieved 10 December 2019 – via Trove.
  6. Electorates Redistribution Act 1904 (PDF).
  7. "Proposed new Electoral Districts". Government Gazette of the State of New South Wales. No. 158. 18 March 1904. p. 2329. Retrieved 10 December 2019 – via Trove.
  8. "Notice of final electoral districts". Government Gazette of the State of New South Wales. No. 227. 22 April 1904. p. 3227. Retrieved 10 December 2019 – via Trove.
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