The Constitution Alteration (Simultaneous Elections) Bill 1974, was an unsuccessful proposal to alter the Australian Constitution to require simultaneous elections for the House of Representatives and the Senate. It was put to voters for approval in a referendum held on 18 May 1974. Previous elections to the House of Representatives and the Senate had usually held simultaneously although this was a matter of convention rather than constitutional law. Election terms had lost synchronisation in the 1960s with separate half Senate elections in 1964, 1967 and 1970.
The bill to amend the constitution was passed by the House of Representatives however it was rejected by the Senate.
Question
Proposed law entitled "An Act to alter the Constitution so as to ensure that Senate elections are held at the same time as House of Representatives elections".
Do you approve the proposed law?
Results
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Result
|- align=center
! rowspan="2" | State
! rowspan="2" | Electoral roll
! rowspan="2" | Ballots issued
! align=center colspan="2" | For
! align=center colspan="2" | Against
! align=center rowspan="2" | Informal
|-
! align=center | Vote
! align=center | %
! align=center | Vote
! align=center | %
|- align="right"
! style="text-align:left;" | New South Wales
| 2,834,558
| 2,702,903
| 1,359,485
!
| 1,303,117
| align="center" |48.94
| 40,301
|- align="right"
! style="text-align:left;" | Victoria
| 2,161,474
| 2,070,893
| 1,001,111
| align="center" | 49.19
| 1,033,969
!
| 35,813
|- align="right"
! style="text-align:left;" | Queensland
| 1,154,762
| 1,098,401
| 481,092
| align="center" | 44.32
| 604,444
!
| 12,865
|- align="right"
! style="text-align:left;" | South Australia
| 750,308
| 722,434
| 332,369
| align="center" | 47.14
| 372,666
!
| 17,399
|- align="right"
! style="text-align:left;" | Western Australia
| 612,016
| 577,989
| 248,860
| align="center" | 44.07
| 315,786
!
| 13,343
|- align="right"
! style="text-align:left;" | Tasmania
| 246,596
| 237,891
| 96,793
| align="center" | 41.37
| 137,156
!
| 3,942
|- bgcolor="#FFE0C0" align="right"
! style="text-align:left" | Total for Commonwealth
| 7,759,714
| 7,410,511
| 3,519,710
| align="center" | 48.30
| 3,767,138
!
| 123,663
|-
! style="text-align:left;"| Results
| colSpan="8" | Obtained majority in one state and an overall minority of 247,428 votes. Not carried
|}
Proposed changes to the text of the constitution
The proposal was to alter the constitution as follows (removed text stricken through; substituted text in bold):