Democracy in action

I had to read this a few times to make sure I hadn't misunderstood it.

The following is a quote from Peter Hain on the proposed referrendum to give the Welsh Assembly more powers.

Rhodri and I and Welsh Labour are not in the business of calling referendums we are going to lose.

I must be mistaken. I thought the idea of a referendum was to find out what the public wanted, not to rubber stamp a government policy.