Australian Referendum, 1977 (Senate Casual Vacancies) - Overview

Overview

The casual vacancies amendment came about as part of the political fallout from the Australian constitutional crisis of 1975. In the aftermath of this crisis, four amendments were recommended by sessions of the Australian Constitutional Convention, including one that would change the procedure for appointing replacement senators. All four were put to voters on 21 May 1977, and all were passed except a proposal for simultaneous elections to the House of Representatives and Senate.

The casual vacancies proposal arose out of the 1975 controversy over the appointment of independent Cleaver Bunton (New South Wales) and anti-Whitlam Australian Labor Party member Albert Field (Queensland) to fill Senate seats formerly held by ALP senators. The change aimed to ensure that a replacement senator would be required to be a member of the party of which the previous senator was a member at the time of his or her election. The amendment was approved by a 73.3 per cent majority of the electorate.

Despite the intention of the amendment's supporters to ensure that the party balance in the Senate should not be altered by a casual vacancy, the amendment has not been entirely successful in that regard. Following the resignation of the Tasmanian ALP Senator Don Grimes in April 1987, the nominee of the ALP, John Devereux, was rejected by a tied vote in the Tasmanian Parliament. As one Tasmanian Minister argued: "we can choose only a person who is a member of the same party ... but we are not bound to accept the nomination of the party concerned". Tasmania therefore had only eleven senators between 2 April and the double dissolution election of 11 July 1987.