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1917 Australian conscription referendum

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The 1917 Australian referendum was held on 20 December 1917. It contained one question.

1917 Australian conscription referendum
20 December 1917 (1917-12-20)
Are you in favour of the proposal of the Commonwealth Government for reinforcing the Australian Imperial Force oversea?
Results
Choice
 Votes %
Yes 1,015,159 46.21%
No 1,181,747 53.79%
Valid votes 2,196,906 97.28%
Invalid or blank votes 61,315 2.72%
Total votes 2,258,221 100.00%
Registered voters/turnout 2,776,440 81.34%
Results by state.
Poster for the Yes campaign 1917

Background

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Further information: World War I conscription in Australia

The 1917 plebiscite was held a year after the highly contentious 1916 conscription plebiscite. The 1916 plebiscite had resulted in a surprise "no" vote, with voters in Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia, as well as a majority of electors nationwide, rejecting the proposal. The political fallout was swift and, by November 1916, had led to the collapse of the First Hughes Ministry. That was associated with a split in the ruling Australian Labor Party, with Prime Minister Billy Hughes and some Labor MPs forming the breakaway National Labor Party which, by February 1917, had merged with the conservative Commonwealth Liberal Party to form the Nationalist Party of Australia. While the Nationalist Party was dominated by former Commonwealth Liberals, it retained Hughes as leader. After Hughes and the Nationalists scored a convincing victory at the 1917 election, Hughes announced that a second plebiscite on the question of conscription would be held on 20 December 1917.[3]

During the course of World War 1, 38.7% of eligible Australian men enlisted for service — around 420,000 out of an eligible population of a little over 1 million. During the war, the range of men eligible to volunteer was expanded, with the initial age range of 19–38 expanded to 18–45 in June 1915. At the same time, medical standards were lowered. For example, by April 1917 the minimum height had dropped from 5 ft 6 in (168 cm) in August 1914 to 5 ft (152 cm).[4] Despite that, there was a marked decrease in the number of enlistments after 1915, with the average in 1917 being fewer than 4,000 per month:[5][6]

  • 1914: 52,561
  • 1915: 165,912
  • 1916: 124,352
  • 1917: 45,101

The 1917 plebiscite

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"Keep Australia White" poster used during the 1917 conscription referendum. The "No" campaign claimed that conscripted soldiers sent overseas would be replaced by non-white labour.
 
"The Death Ballot", a campaign poster for the "No" vote.

The proposal for the 1917 plebiscite was less far-reaching than that of the 1916 poll, eschewing full conscription of able-bodied men and instead proposing to conscript men between the ages of 18 and 44 through a ballot system, and only in months where voluntary enlistments fell below 7,000 men.[7]

 
"Facts for Farm Workers", a campaign poster for the "Yes" vote.

The plebiscite was held due to the Australian Government's desire to increase the recruitment of forces for overseas service to a total of 7,000 men per month. It was conducted under the War Precautions (Military Service Referendum) Regulations 1917.[8] It formed part of the larger debate on conscription in Australia throughout the war.

All of the historical documentation refers to the ballot as a referendum,[8][9] even though it did not involve a proposal to amend the Australian Constitution. Because it was not an amendment to the constitution, (1) it had no legal force, (2) it did not require approval in a majority of states and (3) residents of federal territories were able to vote.[8][a] Such a ballot is now usually referred to as a plebiscite to distinguish it from a referendum to alter the Constitution.[10]

The campaign was notable for an incident in which a protester threw an egg at Prime Minister Hughes, in Warwick, Queensland,[11] and for a raid on the Queensland Government Printing Office by Hughes, accompanied by a party of soldiers, who seized 3,300 copies of the Queensland Parliamentary Hansard which Hughes deemed to contain subversive anti-conscription speeches.[12]

Results

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Despite the fact that the 1917 plebiscite was less far-reaching than the 1916 one, the anti-conscription vote won by a larger margin than it had in 1916. Every state and territory was less supportive of conscription in 1917 than it had been in 1916 with the sole exception of South Australia, which had become more supportive of conscription (although a majority still opposed it).

Results [10]
State Electoral roll Ballots issued For Against Informal
Vote % Vote %
New South Wales 1,055,883 853,894 341,256 41.16 487,774 58.84 24,864
Victoria 807,331 678,806 329,772 49.79 332,490 50.21 16,544
Queensland 378,378 310,164 132,771 44.02 168,875 55.98 8,518
South Australia 261,661 197,970 86,663 44.90 106,364 55.10 4,943
Western Australia 162,347 135,593 84,116 64.39 46,522 35.61 4,955
Tasmania 106,803 78,792 38,881 50.24 38,502 49.76 1,409
Northern Territory and Federal Capital Territory 4,037 3,002 1,700 58.22 1,220 41.78 82
Total† 2,776,440 2,258,221* 1,015,159 46.21 1,181,747 53.79 61,315
†Including 199,677 votes by members of the Australian Imperial Force, of which 103,789 were for, 93,910 against, and 1,978 informal.
Results Obtained an overall minority of 166,588 votes.[b] Not carried

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ People in the territories were not able to vote at a referendum to alter the Constitution until after the 1977 referendum.
  2. ^ As this was a plebiscite not a referendum to amend the Australian Constitution, there was no requirement for a majority of states.

References

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  1. ^ "The Question". The Daily Telegraph. 8 December 1917. p. 10.
  2. ^ "A Quiet Polling Day". The Sydney Morning Herald. 21 December 1917. p. 7.
  3. ^ Connor, John (2011). Anzac and Empire: George Foster Pearce and the Foundations of Australian Defence. Cambridge University Press. p. 107. ISBN 9781107009509.
  4. ^ "Enlistment standards". Australian War Memorial. Archived from the original on 13 October 2016.
  5. ^ "Enlistment statistics, First World War". Australian War Memorial. Archived from the original on 13 October 2016.
  6. ^ A.G. Butler (1943). "Special problems and services: the official history of the Australian Army Medical Services in the war of 1914–1918, vol. III" (PDF). p. 889. Archived (PDF) from the original on 20 December 2016 – via Australian War Memorial.
  7. ^ Carroll, Brian (2004). Australia's Prime Ministers: From Barton to Howard. Rosenberg Publishing. p. 93. ISBN 9781877058226.
  8. ^ a b c "War Precautions (Military Service Referendum) Regulations 1917". Commonwealth of Australia. 10 November 1917. Archived from the original on 20 December 2016.
  9. ^ "Conscription referendums, 1916 and 1917 – Fact sheet 161" (PDF). National Archives of Australia. Retrieved 3 February 2022.
  10. ^ a b Handbook of the 44th Parliament (2014) "Part 5 - Referendums and Plebiscites - Plebiscite results". Parliamentary Library of Australia. Archived from the original on 15 April 2018..
  11. ^ "Senior Sergeant Kenny entirely exonerated". Warwick Examiner and Times. Qld. 5 December 1917. p. 4 – via National Library of Australia.
  12. ^ Fitzgerald, Ross (1994). "Red Ted": The Life of E. G. Theodore. University of Queensland Press. p. 96. ISBN 9780702226496.
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