1981 New South Wales referendum

1981 New South Wales referendum
	4 year terms	Pecuniary interests
Yes	69%	86%
No	31%	14%

The 1981 New South Wales referendum was held on 19 September 1981, the same day as the state election. The referendum contained two questions:

1. Do you approve a Bill for an Act to extend the maximum period between general elections for the Legislative Assembly from 3 years to 4 years?
2. Do you approve a Bill for an Act to require Members of Parliament to disclose certain pecuniary interests and other matters?

Amendments to the constitution

The primary change by the proposal to extend the maximum term was to alter section 7B of the Constitution Act 1902 to provide for a maximum term of 4 years rather than 3.

The proposal to require Members of Parliament to disclose pecuniary interests was to add section 14A to the Constitution Act 1902 which provided that

• the Governor could make regulations requiring members of parliament to disclose their pecuniary interests;
• the relevant house of parliament could declare a seat vacant if the member wilfully contravened any regulation; and
• the regulations could only be disallowed by both houses of parliament.

Results

Both questions were approved with large majorities.

Result 

Question		Votes	%
4 year terms	Yes	1,951,455	69.04
	No	874,944	30.96
	Total Formal	2,826,399	96.53
	Informal	101,528	3.47
Pecuniary interests	No	388,791	13.99
	Yes	2,391,036	86.01
	Total Formal	2,779,827	94.94
	Informal	148,100	5.06
Turnout		2,927,927	91.16

See also

• Referendums in New South Wales
• Referendums in Australia
• 2016 Queensland term length referendum
• 1991 Queensland four year terms referendum