Frederick John Nile (born 15 September 1934), Australian politician and clergyman, is a member of the Legislative Council of New South Wales, Australia. He was a member from 1981 to 2004, before resigning in an unsuccessful bid to be elected to the Australian Senate at the 9 October 2004 Australian election. He was subsequently re-elected to his still vacant seat in October 2004.
He is National President of the Christian Democratic Party, a minor political party which espouses conservative views on issues such as abortion, homosexuality and pornography. He is best known in for his outspoken opposition to the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.
Fred Nile has made a number of highly controversial comments over the years. In the early 1980s he suggested that homosexual men should be quarantined to halt the spread of AIDS. Recently, after the Moscow theatre hostage crisis in 2002, he suggested a ban of Muslim women from wearing headscarves in public to prevent weapons being hidden inside them. In 2005 he has called for the repealing of New South Wales anti-vilification laws, in a response to a ruling by the Equal Opportunity Division of the Administrative Decisions Tribunal. The ruling involved two radio hosts, John Laws and Steve Price , who have said to have made vilificatory comments against a gay couple on a television show, saying "You make a joke about Baptists, Catholics, the Pope, Irish people... why can't you make a joke about homosexuals?".
Fred Nile is married to Elaine Nile (who is also a former member of the Legislative Council ) and they have four children. He is also the National Co-ordinator and NSW Director, Australian Federation of Festival of Light , a Christian organisation. In 2003 Nile resigned from the Uniting Church in Australia when that church officially decided to openly allow for the ordination of practicing homosexual clergy. He has since rejoined the Congregational Church, which ordained him in 1964.
See also