1981 New South Wales referendum

The 1981 New South Wales referendum was held on 19 September 1981, the same day as the state election. The referendum contained two questions:

  1. Do you approve a Bill for an Act to extend the maximum period between general elections for the Legislative Assembly from 3 years to 4 years?[2]
  2. Do you approve a Bill for an Act to require Members of Parliament to disclose certain pecuniary interests and other matters?[3]

1981 New South Wales referendum[1]
4 year terms Pecuniary interests
Yes 69% 86%
No 31% 14%

Amendments to the constitution

The primary change by the proposal to extend the maximum term was to alter section 7B of the Constitution Act 1902 to provide for a maximum term of 4 years rather than 3.[4]

The proposal to require Members of Parliament to disclose pecuniary interests was to add section 14A to the Constitution Act 1902 which provided that

  • the Governor could make regulations requiring members of parliament to disclose their pecuniary interests;
  • the relevant house of parliament could declare a seat vacant if the member wilfully contravened any regulation; and
  • the regulations could only be disallowed by both houses of parliament.[5]

Results

Both questions were approved with large majorities.

Result [1]
QuestionVotes %
4 year terms Yes 1,951,455 69.04
No 874,944 30.96
Total Formal   2,826,399 96.53
Informal 101,528 3.47
Pecuniary interests   No 388,791 13.99
Yes 2,391,036 86.01
Total Formal 2,779,827 94.94
Informal 148,100 5.06
Turnout [6]   2,927,927   91.16  

See also

References
  1. "NSW Referendum - 19 September 1981". New South Wales Electoral Commission. Archived from the original on 11 March 2011.
  2. "Writ for a referendum: extend the maximum period between elections". Government Gazette of the State of New South Wales. No. 126. 28 August 1981. p. 4567. Retrieved 16 October 2019 – via Trove.
  3. "Writ for a referendum: disclosure of pecuniary interests". Government Gazette of the State of New South Wales. No. 127. 28 August 1981. p. 4569. Retrieved 16 October 2019 – via Trove.
  4. "Constitution (Legislative Assembly) Amendment Act 1981 No 102" (PDF). Legislation.nsw.gov.au. Retrieved 16 October 2019.
  5. "Constitution (disclosure by members) Amendment Act 1981 No 103" (PDF). Legislation.nsw.gov.au. Retrieved 16 October 2019.
  6. Based on a roll of 3,212,017: Green, Antony. "1981 election totals". New South Wales Election Results 1856-2007. Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 16 October 2019.
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