Fred Nile - Political Career

Political Career

Nile was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Council on 19 September 1981 with 9.1% of the vote as the founder of the Call to Australia (Fred Nile) Group, established in 1977. Following the election to the Legislative Council of Jim Cameron (in 1984) and Nile's wife, Elaine (1988), the Call to Australia Group was officially recognised as a political party. Fred Nile was re-elected to the Council at the 1991 and 1999 state elections before resigning from the Council on 30 August 2004 in order to contest the 2004 Federal election, seeking a position in the Australian Senate on a platform of opposition of the recognition of gay marriages. Nile was the last candidate excluded after the distribution of votes on the 77th count, and was not elected to the Senate. A few months later, he was reappointed to the Legislative Council to fill the vacancy created by his resignation. At the 2007 NSW general election, Nile was re-elected for a further eight year term and was appointed by Labor to the newly created position of Assistant President of the NSW Legislative Council. In 2009, Nile announced that he will not recontest when his seat in the Legislative Council is next up for election in 2015.

Nile is National President of the Christian Democratic Party, a conservative party which focuses primarily on what it regards as important moral and social issues. Nile is noted for his controversial comments. He is known for his vocal opposition to drug use, violence against women and children and the "mistreatment of the Aboriginal community" by state and federal governments. He is most often quoted by the media on issues relating to pornography, abortion and homosexuality.

In 2003 Nile resigned from the Uniting Church in Australia when that church "officially decided to part with a literal interpretation of the Judeo-Christian Bible". He is the president of the Fellowship of Congregational Churches, a group of Australian Congregationalists who declined to join the Uniting Church in 1977. In 2007 Nile retired as the New South Wales director of the Australian Federation of Festival of Light. Nile is patron of the Australian Christian Nation Association and Vice President of the Australian Christian Endeavour Union, an evangelical youth movement.