New State Movement
New England has been the home of Australia's most persistent attempt to form a new state within the Australian commonwealth. Many New England people have long resented being governed from Sydney. In the 1930s and again in the 1960s, the New England New State Movement campaigned for New England to be separated from New South Wales. The movement was closely allied with the Country Party, which could have expected to form the government of such a new state.
On 29 April 1967 a referendum in the region on the creation of a new state in northern NSW returned a 'no' vote of 54%.
Chapter VI of the Constitution of Australia allows new states to be formed, but only with the consent of the Parliament of the state in question. It has never been likely that the New South Wales Parliament would consent to the separation of New England.
Read more about this topic: New England (New South Wales)
Famous quotes containing the words state and/or movement:
“Irish? In truth I would not want to be anything else. It is a state of mind as well as an actual country. It is being at odds with other nationalities, having quite different philosophy about pleasure, about punishment, about life, and about death. At least it does not leave one pusillanimous.”
—Edna O’Brien (b. c. 1932)
“No great movement designed to change the world can bear to be laughed at or belittled. Mockery is a rust that corrodes all it touches.”
—Milan Kundera (b. 1929)