And they triggered that referendum process in December, when these boxes were presented to the Governor General.

The Coalition timed the process to coincide with the Municipal elections on March 7th. But it's not going to happen - and it's not because of the technical points raised by the Prime Minister at his press conference yesterday; it's for a far more basic reason.

According to reports we've received from senior sources, the Elections and Boundaries found that the eight thousand of the names gathered do not qualify.

The reason is that the signatures of those eight thousand persons provided in the referendum petition do not match the signatures corresponding to those names in the binders of voters - which is the primary record of electors.

This was discovered by the Elections and Boundaries office during its verification of the signatures on the petition - a process which that office is required by law to perform.

Staffers had until sixth February to complete that process but - according to our information they finished earlier this week - and the list has now been sent to the Governor General for his consideration.

And, while the GG acts in his own deliberate judgment, seems there's not much to consider: without 10% of the electorate signed on and verified on a petition, the referendum simply cannot be triggered. And that's pretty much the end of story.

As we understand it, the GG's office has written to the Coalition telling them that because the signatures did not match, the petition has failed and there can be no further action on the matter.