A referendum was held in the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...

on Saturday, 3 October 1998, to decide whether the Territory should become a State of the

Commonwealth of Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands. It has a total area of , making it the sixth-largest country in ...

. The

Country Liberal Party The Country Liberal Party of the Northern Territory (CLP), commonly known as the Country Liberals, is a centre-right and conservative political party in Australia's Northern Territory. In territory politics, it operates in a two-party system wi ...

government, and its federal counterpart, supported the Yes case. The opposition Labor Party supported the No case. The referendum was narrowly defeated, 51.9% to 48.1%. The "Yes" case received 44,702 votes, the "No" case 48,241. There were 1068 invalid ballots. The result was widely interpreted as a personal rebuke to then

Chief Minister A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union ter ...

Shane Stone Shane Leslie Stone (born 25 September 1950) is an Australian political figure. He is a member and former leader of the Country Liberal Party, and was the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory between May 1995 and February 1999. Since Oct ...

. Polls suggest that most of the people living in the Northern Territory continue to support statehood for the territory in principle.Northern Territory Statehood Steering Committee, 2006 Statehood Survey Results (accessed 20 October 2008)
/ref> The failed referendum has been seen as the trigger for the demise of the CLP government which had been in power since 1974. In February 1999, months after the failed referendum, Stone resigned as Chief Minister with the failed referendum being the trigger for his ousting. He was replaced by Denis Burke who then led the CLP to defeat in 2001 election marking the end of 27 years of CLP rule.

Background

The territory has a legislative assembly. Whilst this assembly exercises roughly the same powers as the governments of the states of Australia, it does so by delegation of powers from the commonwealth government, rather than by any constitutional right. For several years there has been agitation for full statehood. Under the

Australian Constitution The Constitution of Australia (also known as the Commonwealth Constitution) is the fundamental law that governs the political structure of Australia. It is a written constitution, which establishes the country as a Federation of Australia, ...

, the

Federal government A federation (also called a federal state) is an entity characterized by a political union, union of partially federated state, self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a #Federal governments, federal government (federalism) ...

may set the terms of entry to full statehood. The Northern Territory was offered three Senators, rather than the twelve guaranteed to original states. (Because of the difference in populations, equal numbers of Senate seats would mean a Territorian's vote for a Senator would have been worth more than 30 votes in

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

or Victoria.) Alongside what was cited as an arrogant approach adopted by then Chief Minister

, it is believed that most Territorians were reluctant to adopt the offer which was made. A bipartisan NT Legislative Assembly Committee, chaired by former Chief Minister

Stephen Hatton Stephen Paul Hatton (born 28 January 1948) is an Australian politician, who was Chief Minister of the Northern Territory of Australia from 1986 to 1988. From 1983 until his retirement in 2001, he was MLA for the seat of Nightcliff. He first bec ...

, had proposed a draft Constitution and that it should be debated at an elected Constitutional Convention. Shane Stone ignored the latter recommendation, nominating a Convention membership of 53 members at short notice, and then presented to the Convention a draft Constitution that was different from the Committee's recommendation. Stephen Hatton later said "one of the campaign slogans at the time was, we want statehood, not Stonehood".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Northern Territory Referendum, 1998 1990s in the Northern Territory 1998 elections in Australia 1998 referendums October 1998 in Australia Referendums in the Northern Territory