The 1978 Australian Capital Territory self-government referendum was a referendum held on 25 November 1978, asking voters in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) whether the territory should be granted self-governance.

[2] 63.8% of ACT voters chose to support the present arrangements, compared to 30.5% for self-government and 5.7% for local government.

As a result, no change was made to the governing structure.

[4][5] The election was conducted using preferential voting, with voters numbering all options in the order of their preferred governance model.

[8][9] Residents of the Jervis Bay Territory, which was part of the federal electorate of Fraser at the time, were not eligible to vote in the referendum.