People have peculiar but passionate views about referendums. A large number swear that in 1974 and 1988 the people voted against referendums on the existence of local government. To them, local government is ‘unconstitutional’, so they don’t have to pay their council rates. Members of the same cohort also proclaim that they have a constitutional right to trial by jury for state criminal offences and a right to compensation on just terms if a state compulsorily acquires their land.
But the history of referendums in Australia tells the opposite story. The referendums in 1974 and 1988 on local government concerned whether the Commonwealth could fund local government directly and whether local government bodies had to be elected. The defeat of these referendums made no difference to the existence and powers of local government bodies, which are governed by state laws. So yes, people still have to pay their rates.
People Power: How Australian referendums are lost and won by George Williams and David Hume
Second Edition, UNSW Press, $49.99 pb, 346 pp
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