1947 New South Wales closing hour referendum

A referendum concerning the closing hour for licensed premises and registered clubs was put to voters on 15 February 1947. The referendum was conducted on the basis of optional preferential voting. Preferences were not counted as a majority voted to maintain the 6:00 pm closing time.

1947 New South Wales closing hour referendum
15 February 1947
The question is the closing hour for premises and clubs licensed under the Liquor Act, 1912:

6 pm or 9 pm or 11 pm ?[1]
Results
Choice
 Votes  %
6:00 pm 1,050,260 62.44%
9:00 pm 26,954 1.60%
10:00 pm 604,833 35.96%
Valid votes 1,682,047 99.11%
Invalid or blank votes 15,183 0.89%
Total votes 1,697,230 100.00%
Registered voters/turnout 1,852,787 91.6%

Background

Six o'clock closing was introduced in New South Wales during the First World War following the 1916 referendum. The 1916 vote was influenced by a recent riot involving drunken soldiers. In February 1916, troops mutinied against conditions at the Casula Camp. They raided hotels in Liverpool before travelling by train to Sydney, where one soldier was shot dead in a riot at Central Railway station.[2] Although it was introduced as a temporary measure, the government brought in extensions and discussed putting the matter to a referendum. In 1923, however, without testing the matter by a popular vote, the Fuller Nationalist government enacted 6 pm as the closing time.[3]

The question

The voting paper was:[4]

The elector shall indicate his vote by placing the number "1" in the square opposite the closing hour for which he desires to give his first preference vote, and shall give contingent votes for all the remaining closing hours by placing the numbers "2," and "3" in the squares opposite those closing hours respectively, so as to indicate by numerical sequence the order of his preference for them.

Order of Preference          Closing hour          
 Six o'clock
Nine o'clock
Ten o'clock

Results

The referendum was overwhelmingly in favour of 6:00 pm closing time.

Result [5][6]
Question     Votes           %      
What should be the closing
hour of licensed premises		 6:00 pm 1,050,260 62.44
9:00 pm 26,954 1.60
10:00 pm 604,833 35.96
Total formal votes 1,682,047 99.11
Informal votes 15,183 0.89
Turnout [7] 1,697,230 91.60

Aftermath

This was the second of three referendums concerning the closing hour for licensed premises and clubs.[8]

This table is an excerpt from 1916 New South Wales closing hour referendum § Aftermath.[edit]
Closing hour referendum results [8]
Referendum 6:00 pm 7:00 pm 8:00 pm 9:00 pm 10:00 pm 11:00 pm
(2) 1916 Licensed premises closing hour 62.18% 0.97% 3.84% 32.16% 0.29%  0.56%
(5) 1947 Licensed premises and clubs closing hour 62.44% 1.60% 35.96%
(6) 1954 Licensed premises and clubs closing hour 49.73% 50.27%

See also

References
  1. "Referendums in New South Wales". Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 26 November 2022.
  2. Robson, LL (1969). Australia & the Great War: 1914-1918. Australia: Macmillan. pp. 12 and 63-65. ISBN 978-0-333-11921-1.
  3. Freeland, JM (1966). The Australian Pub. Australia: Melbourne University Press. p. 175. ISBN 9780725102371.
  4. Liquor Referendum Act 1916 No 10 (NSW).
  5. "Liquor (Amendment) Act, 1946 (39)". Government Gazette of the State of New South Wales. 21 March 1947. p. 650. Retrieved 25 October 2021 – via Trove.
  6. "Referendum 15 February 1947". NSW Electoral Commission. Archived from the original on 18 February 2011.
  7. Estimate based on a roll of 1,852,787 at the 1947 state election: Green, Antony. "1947 election totals". New South Wales Election Results 1856-2007. Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 25 October 2021.
  8. "Results of referendums in New South Wales". Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 25 October 2021.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.