Since federation, voters in the Australian territories had been excluded from voting in referendums. The proposed law, Constitution Alteration (Mode of Altering the Constitution) 1974 attempted to rectify this situation by counting voters in the territories towards the national majority, but not towards any state total.
The question was put to a referendum in the Australian referendum, 1974

Australian referendum, 1974

The 1974 Australian Referendum was held on 18 May 1974. It contained four referendum questions.* Simultaneous Elections * Mode of Altering the Constitution * Democratic Elections ...

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Results

Proposed law entitled "An Act to facilitate alterations to the Constitution and to allow electors in territories, as well as electors in the states, to vote at referendums on proposed laws to alter the Constitution".

Do you approve the proposed law?

Result

State	On rolls	Ballots issued	For		Against		Informal
				%		%
New South Wales New South Wales New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...	2,834,558	2,702,903	1,367,476	%51.35	1,295,621	%48.65	39,806
Victoria	2,161,474	2,070,893	1,001,753	%49.22	1,033,486	%50.78	35,654
Queensland Queensland Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...	1,154,762	1,098,401	480,926	%44.29	604,816	%55.71	12,659
South Australia South Australia South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...	750,308	722,434	311,954	%44.26	392,891	%55.74	17,589
Western Australia Western Australia Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...	612,016	577,989	240,134	%42.53	324,435	%57.47	13,420
Tasmania Tasmania Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...	246,596	237,891	95,264	%40.72	138,674	%59.28	3,953
Total for Commonwealth	7,759,714	7,410,511	3,497,507	%47.99	3,789,923	%52.01	123,081
Obtained majority in one State and an overall minority of 292,416 votes.
Not carried

Discussion

This referendum

Referendum

A referendum is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. This may result in the adoption of a new constitution, a constitutional amendment, a law, the recall of an elected official or simply a specific government policy. It is a form of...

 attempted to alter the way in which the results of referendum questions would be tallied. The votes of residents of territories was to be included in the national totals for deciding national majority, and only three of the six states would need to have a state vote of yes rather than four as in previous referendums.

Prior to this referendum, failure to win a carry in a majority of states had resulted in rejection of three referendum questions which would have otherwise carried had this modification been in place, although in none of the two instances where double majorites were not taken place following this referendum the change wouldn't have made any difference.

A similar question without the modification to the double majority rule was put to referendum in Australian referendum, 1977 (Referendums)

Australian referendum, 1977 (Referendums)

Constitution Alteration 1977 proposed to allow residents in the territories to vote in referendums. Residents in territories were to be counted towards the national total, but would not be counted toward any state total...

, and was carried strongly. Given this, and examining the results of this question it can be inferred that the states with small populations were unwilling to give up their power for the sake of giving votes to territorians.