Since 1999, asking how many referendums Australia has had – then how many have passed – has been a pair of standard pub quiz questions. Everyone knew we’d had 44 since Federation in 1901 and only eight had ever passed.
Well, questioners in pubs across the country will have to make a minor update. Australia has now had 45 referendums, for a meagre harvest of eight changes to its written constitution. The Voice to parliament has been voted down even more comprehensively than the Republic was in 1999. It lost in every state and one of the country’s two sparsely populated territories. If it were possible to kill it any deader, it’s difficult to see how.
Australia is a proud constitutional bowerbird. A Westminster system with a bicameral parliament, yes, the country also enshrines a federalism so intense it shocks many Americans. It’s possible for an individual state to vote (by referendum) to secede, for example, something
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