1917 Australian conscription referendum

none 1917 12 20 y Are you in favour of the proposal of the Commonwealth Government for reinforcing the Australian Imperial Force oversea? Australia 1,015,159 1,181,747 61,315 2,776,440 Failed Australian referendum results by states, 1917.png 350px Results by state#0247FE Yes#841B2D No October 2025 October 2025 The 1917 Australian referendum was held on 20 December 1917. It contained one question. Are you in favour of the proposal of the Commonwealth Government for reinforcing the Australian Imperial Force oversea?https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/239241088 The Question The Daily Telegraph 8 December 1917 10https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/15782340 A Quiet Polling Day 21 December 1917 The Sydney Morning Herald 7 thumb|Poster for the Yes campaign 1917 Background 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.Connor John Anzac and Empire: George Foster Pearce and the Foundations of Australian Defence 2011 Cambridge University Press 9781107009509 107 https://books.google.com/books?id=IuLyEZQumAIC&pg=PP1 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 cm 0 on in August 1914 to 5 ft cm 0 on.https://www.awm.gov.au/encyclopedia/enlistment/ Enlistment standards Australian War Memorial https://web.archive.org/web/20161013140428/https://www.awm.gov.au/encyclopedia/enlistment/ 13 October 2016 live 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:https://www.awm.gov.au/encyclopedia/enlistment/ww1/ Enlistment statistics, First World War Australian War Memorial https://web.archive.org/web/20161013201133/https://www.awm.gov.au/encyclopedia/enlistment/ww1/ 13 October 2016 live A.G. Butler Special problems and services: the official history of the Australian Army Medical Services in the war of 1914–1918, vol. III https://www.awm.gov.au/images/collection/pdf/RCDIG1069575--1-.pdf Australian War Memorial 1943 889 live https://web.archive.org/web/20161220100959/https://www.awm.gov.au/images/collection/pdf/RCDIG1069575--1-.pdf 20 December 2016 dmy-all 1914: 52,561 1915: 165,912 1916: 124,352 1917: 45,101 The 1917 plebiscite thumb|right|"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. thumb|right|"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.https://books.google.com/books?id=W8PUBuw4idYC&pg=PP1 Australia's Prime Ministers: From Barton to Howard Carroll Brian Rosenberg Publishing 2004 9781877058226 93 thumb|right|"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.https://www.legislation.gov.au/Series/C1917L00290 War Precautions (Military Service Referendum) Regulations 1917 Commonwealth of Australia 10 November 1917 live https://web.archive.org/web/20161220121130/https://www.legislation.gov.au/Series/C1917L00290 20 December 2016 dmy-all 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,https://www.naa.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-05/fs-161-conscription-referendums-1916-and-1917.pdf Conscription referendums, 1916 and 1917 – Fact sheet 161 National Archives of Australia 2022-02-03 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.People in the territories were not able to vote at a referendum to alter the Constitution until after the 1977 referendum. Such a ballot is now usually referred to as a plebiscite to distinguish it from a referendum to alter the Constitution. The campaign was notable for an incident in which a protester threw an egg at Prime Minister Hughes, in Warwick, Queensland,http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article82836079 Senior Sergeant Kenny entirely exonerated. Warwick Examiner and Times Qld. 5 December 1917 4 National Library of Australia 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.Fitzgerald Ross "Red Ted": The Life of E. G. Theodore 1994 University of Queensland Press 9780702226496 https://books.google.com/books?id=kOoXdE16jA8C&pg=PA96 96 Results 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). + ResultsHandbook of the 44th Parliament (2014) http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22handbook%2Fnewhandbook%2F2014-10-31%2F0050%22 Part 5 - Referendums and Plebiscites - Plebiscite results Parliamentary Library of Australia live https://web.archive.org/web/20180415002615/http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22handbook%2Fnewhandbook%2F2014-10-31%2F0050%22 15 April 2018 dmy-all . 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 24,864Victoria 807,331 678,806 329,772 49.79 332,490 50.21 16,544Queensland 378,378 310,164 132,771 44.02 168,875 55.98 8,518South Australia 261,661 197,970 86,663 44.90 106,364 55.10 4,943Western Australia 162,347 135,593 84,116 64.39 46,522 35.61 4,955Tasmania 106,803 78,792 38,88150.24 38,502 49.76 1,409Northern Territory and Federal Capital Territory 4,037 3,002 1,70058.22 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.As this was a plebiscite not a referendum to amend the Australian Constitution, there was no requirement for a majority of states. Not carried See also 1916 Australian conscription referendum Conscription in Australia World War I Conscription in Australia Australia in World War I Notes References 30em 1917 Category:1917 referendums Plebiscite Plebiscite 1917 Category:1917 in international relations conscription referendum 1917 Category:Conscription in Australia Category:Conscription referendums Category:December 1917 in Australia