Democracy as we know is under siege. The US is tumbling towards a constitutional crisis and some developing countries are abandoning democracy. What once appeared as a gradual democratic recession has become tidal.

Australia is lucky to have so far avoided the worst of anti-democratic sentiments, such as the increasing polarisation of views and violence seen elsewhere. That fact should be recognised and celebrated. It was, at least in part, what the Diggers fought for. As prime minister at the time Billy Hughes stated, “We fight not for material wealth, not for aggrandisement of Empire, but for the right of every nation, small as well as large, to live its own life in its own way. We fight for those institutions upon which democratic government rests.”

Members of the 44th Battalion cast their ballots in the 1917 conscription referendum on the Western Front.Credit: Australian War Memorial

The strength of our democracy and its institutions is worth celebrating this Anzac Day by remembering the Australian Diggers who took part in that great democratic tool, a referendum, during World War I.

In 1916 and 1917, Australia’s servicemen and women were asked to vote on military conscription: could the Australian government force men to enlist and serve in war overseas? Hughes himself campaigned for a Yes vote. The vote ultimately failed, with a 51 per cent majority for No in 1916 and a similar 53 per cent........

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