Burning Words

Seems like there’s another piece of good news today. The Christian Democratic Party, the political party of far-right zealot Fred Nile, appears to be in quite a lot of trouble.

The CDP has had a presence in the NSW state parliament since the early 1980s, and disastrously held the balance of power in the Legislative Council for a couple of years in 1988-89 before an internal split cost it an MP and part of its support base. It has managed to keep two MPs there ever since, spouting the usual hardline anti-gay and anti-abortion rhetoric - Fred and Elaine Nile, and then former Wesley Mission head Gordon Moyes when Elaine Nile retired a few years back.

However, the party reached a whole new level of evil last year, when, facing re-election and diminishing polling figures, Nile added a whole new plank to his platform: hardline racist anti-Muslim policies. This reached a peak last last year, with Nile’s organising of a race-hate rally at the site of a proposed Islamic school in the Sydney suburb of Camden. It got Nile re-elected this time around, but it looks like racism might be the final nail in the coffin for the CDP - it broke in the press yesterday that Gordon Moyes is not happy with being associated with Nile’s vile statements on this, and is causing for Nile to either distance himself from the anti-Muslim stuff or be sacked as leader.

This isn’t just a small squabble. The CDP has always been, in effect, the Fred Nile Party. There is no way Moyes is ever going to evict Nile from his own party, and he’s already gone out on such a limb that I expect him to either be sacked or resign within months, if not weeks, as happened last time another MP dared dissent from the Nile line. Moyes’ seat is up for re-election at the next election, and the party’s support is not what it was in ‘89: bluntly, if Moyes runs as an independent, they will lose the seat. It’s also worth noting that Moyes seems to be a reasonably popular figure in certain Christian circles, and I fully expect him to take a not insignificant section of the party with him if he goes. As such, I suspect that the CDP will probably drop back to one seat - its worst position since its foundation. If this happens, Fred Nile is going to be more isolated than ever in parliament. Let me put it another way: in 1999, Nile nearly lost his seat to the Registered Clubs Party (who?). With the increasing likelihood of a divided party and no one else to support him in parliament, I suspect that he’s going to wind up back there support-wise, and that this may well be his last term as well.

And to that - well, good riddance.

Tags: new south wales, racism, religious zealotry