1913 Australian referendum (Corporations)

Australian Corporations referendum, 1913
Do you approve of the proposed law for the alteration of the Constitution entitled —; ; "Constitution Alteration (Corporations) 1912" ?
Results

The Constitution Alteration (Corporations) Bill 1912,^[1] 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:^[2]

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 ^[3]^[4]
State	Electoral roll	Ballots issued	For		Against		Informal
State	Electoral roll	Ballots issued	Vote	%	Vote	%	Informal
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.^[4]

1911 referendum on trade and commerce

References

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

v t e Federal elections and referendums in Australia
Federal elections	1901 1903 1906 1910 1913 1914 1917 1919 1922 1925 1928 1929 1931 1934 1937 1940 1943 1946 1949 1951 1953 1954 1955 1958 1961 1963 1964 1966 1967 1969 1970 1972 1974 1975 1977 1980 1983 1984 1987 1990 1993 1996 1998 2001 2004 2007 2010 2013 2016 2019 2022 2025
Constitutional Convention	1997
Referendums	1906 1910 1911 1913 1916 1917 1919 1926 1928 1937 1944 1946 1948 1951 1967 1973 1974 1977 1984 1988 1999 2017 2023
See also: By-elections

1913 Australian referendum (Corporations)

Question

Results

Discussion

See also

References

Further reading