Summary

How To Vote card for the referendums held on Saturday 27 May 1967, issued by the NO More Politicians Committee and authorised by Senator V.C. Gair and Senator R.C. Wright.

The first referendum question was an attempt to alter the balance of numbers in the Senate and the House of Representatives which was defeated. The second question was to determine whether two references in the Australian Constitution, which discriminated against First Peoples, should be removed and this question succeeded in the highest ever 'yes' vote in an Australian referendum.

The sections of the Constitution under scrutiny were (quoted directly from the original wording):

"51. The Parliament shall, subject to this Constitution, have power to make laws for the peace, order, and good government of the Commonwealth with respect to:
(xxvi) The people of any race, other than the aboriginal people in any State, for whom it is necessary to make special laws.
127. In reckoning the numbers of the people of the Commonwealth, or of a State or other part of the Commonwealth, aboriginal natives should not be counted."

The majority of parliamentarians supported the second proposed amendment, a NO case was never formulated for presentation as part of the referendum campaign.

Physical Description

Rectangular orange coloured paper with black print.

Significance

The significance of this 'How to Vote Card' lies in its association with the referendum held on 27 May 1967 when 90.77% of Australian voters recorded the largest ever 'Yes' vote in a referendum to alter the Australian constitution which finally enabled Aboriginal people to be counted in the national census and to be subject to Commonwealth laws, rather than just state laws.

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