The Australian nation came into being following a series of referendums in the 1890s, and they have been a regular feature of Australian democracy ever since. In every decade of the 20th century, there was at least one referendum. However, the 2023 referendum on the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to Parliament will be the first in nearly a quarter of a century.
The authors of the Australian Constitution wanted it to be an enduring but not unchanging document. In Section 128, a mechanism for changing the Constitution was included that has a role for the federal government, the states and the people. Federal parliament must agree to put a change forward, and it then requires the approval of a majority of states as well as an overall majority of voters.
According to American political scientist Donald Lutz, this “double majority” makes Australia’s Constitution the fifth most difficult in the world to change.
