If a referendum is held and the result is a tie, does the Governor-General have a casting vote?
No, the Governor-General does not have a casting vote in a referendum.
A referendum is a vote by the Australian people to change the Australian Constitution. A referendum will only be successful if it is supported by a majority of voters in a majority of states, and by a majority of voters across the nation as a whole – a double majority. In the unlikely event that a referendum result is an exact tie, it would be unsuccessful.
Changing the Australian Constitution – double majority.
Parliamentary Education Office (peo.gov.au)
Changing the Australian Constitution – double majority.
Parliamentary Education Office (peo.gov.au)
Description
This image shows how the Australian Constitution can only be changed with the support of the majority of Australian voters and the majority of voters in the majority of states (ie at least 4 states).
Votes from the ACT, NT and other territories are counted in the national majority only.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
You are free to share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work.
Attribution – you must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).
Non-commercial – you may not use this work for commercial purposes.
No derivative works – you may not alter, transform, or build upon this work.
Waiver – any of the above conditions can be waived if you get permission from the copyright holder.