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The New Southern Cross by Claude Marquet. The 1916 Australian referendum, concerning how conscripted soldiers could be deployed, was held on 28 October 1916. It was the first non-binding Australian referendum (often referred to as a plebiscite because it did not involve a constitutional question), and contained one proposition, which was Prime Minister Billy Hughes' proposal to allow ...
Hughes, however, knew that he did not need to create a new law but could just amend the old one to include conscription via a democratic referendum. As a result, on 28 October 1916, an advisory referendum was held to decide whether the community of Australia supported conscription. The vote was rejected, and Hughes was sacked from the Labor Party.
On 30 August 1916, he announced plans for a referendum on the issue (the 1916 Australian conscription referendum), and introduced enabling legislation into parliament on 15 September, which passed only with the support of the opposition. Six of Hughes's ministers resigned in protest at the move, and the New South Wales state branch of the Labor ...
They were typically branded as "shirkers", "traitors" and "pro-German". State, social and moral pressure was applied. In the wake of the conscription referendum in 1916 these accusations became more malicious. The social divisions produced by conscription and the pressure to enlist cut particularly deeply into rural communities.
Under Labor Prime Minister Billy Hughes, full conscription for overseas service was attempted during the First World War in two referendums. The first referendum was held on 28 October 1916 and narrowly rejected conscription with a margin of 49% for and 51% against. [4] The referendum of 28 October 1916 asked Australians:
Pressured by British leaders for increased Australian participation in the war effort, Labor Prime Minister Billy Hughes announced his intention to hold a national referendum on compulsory military conscription in October 1916. After a particularly bitter campaign, a majority of Australians voted against the proposal, the issue splitting the ...
In September the New South Wales Labor Party expelled Hughes on account of the issue. Following the narrow defeat of the October 1916 conscription referendum, the state branches of the Labor party began expelling other prominent pro-conscriptionists. In November, Hughes and 23 of his supporters left the parliamentary party, and in January 1917 ...
1916 Australian conscription referendum; 1917 Australian conscription referendum This page was last edited on 4 May 2019, at 03:46 (UTC). Text is ...