I sent three emails to the Reverend Nile, but sadly no reply.
The Rev. Fred Nile is currently serving as:
Daily Telegraph
THE Reverend Fred Nile has everyone talking about bare breasts - but both sides of politics say his proposal to ban topless sunbathing is not a matter for State Parliament.
A proposal to outlaw bare-breasted women on NSW beaches has gained almost no support since Mr Nile raised the issue today.
The Christian Democratic Party upper house member wants to introduce a private member's Bill, which NSW Labor MP Paul Gibson and Liberal MP David Clarke said they would support.
But Acting NSW Premier Carmel Tebbutt does not have a problem with topless sunbathing and says the issue is a matter for local councils.
"Government can sometimes get themselves into all sorts of trouble by trying to stray into areas that are better left to individuals," she said.
NSW Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell says the issue "doesn't even rate" with State Parliament.
He is also not bothered by bare breasts at the beach, and said his wife and two sons, aged nine and 14, visited beaches where topless sunbathing was not common.
"You work out which are family-friendly beaches, which aren't, and you simply attend those," Mr O'Farrell said.
Acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard said the issue was about mutual respect among beachgoers.
"Obviously family groups want to go to the beach, people who want to get a bit of sun all over also want to go to the beach," she said.
"As long as people know what the rules are and know what to expect I think it
is a matter for the individuals involved."
The issue has dominated the
local media since being exposed by The Daily Telegraph this
morning.
And readers have got lots to say - the majority praising topless bathing, some claiming "man boobs" and saggy bellies are the true offenders, plenty agreeing NSW's biggest boobs are in Parliament and one wag saying that any law should prohibit women over 35 from sunbathing topless.
In an astonishing attack on his leader, Christian Democrats MP Gordon Moyes has accused the Reverend Fred Nile, 73, of being a greedy bully. In return, Mr Nile claims the Reverend Moyes is not just paranoid but mentally ill.
Simmering tensions between the two boiled over into all-out war when Mr Moyes asked for his parliamentary office to be moved from within Mr Nile's, claiming his staff had been subjected to bullying and harassment.
Mr Moyes, 69, in his second upper house term, said that, in 50 years of Christian activity, he had never known such a toxic atmosphere.
The only option was for them both to resign from Parliament at the same time to be replaced by two young people, Mr Moyes said. It was now a case of "if you jump, I'll jump too", he said.
Mr Moyes said Mr Nile - the upper house's assistant president - had manipulated naive, good-willed Christians who recently installed him as party president for life.
"Fred's manipulation of a democratic party was disgraceful, but not unexpected," Mr Moyes said.
"He has become a pathetic figure. He is a loner, he has no peers as friends.
"In spite of the intensity of Parliament he works all day in his office with his door closed. He eats his fast-food meals alone and he spends every night alone in a cheap motel in western Sydney.
"He has no interest in sports, crafts, hobbies or garden; is accountable to no Christian support group or prayer group; and he never laughs.
"In old age, Fred is committed to gaining money and status, and with attacking any who disagree with himself."
Mr Nile hit back, telling The Sun-Herald: "Some people have remarked that he has become a bit unbalanced and is in need of a psychiatric evaluation."
Re-elected last year until 2015, Mr Nile said he had no intention of resigning and owed it to his supporters and "millions" of friends to stay put.
"I intend to continue as long as it's God's will," he said. "I'm not too old. I'm fighting fit, never better. I have learned a lot in the last 27 years and I am still making a contribution."
Mr Nile, who lives on the South Coast, said it was perfectly usual for non-Sydney based MPs to stay in motels while Parliament was sitting. He was not a bully and had a friendly relationship with Mr Moyes's staff.
The breakdown of their relationship was very disappointing, he said, but he had been warned that Mr Moyes was likely to stab him in the back.
IF THE prayers of the Reverend Fred Nile and his followers are answered, God will intervene in the toxic affairs of their minor political party and help to remove the "thorn in our side" - the Reverend Gordon Moyes.
In his monthly journal, Family World News, Mr Nile accuses the man he recruited to his Christian Democratic Party of disloyalty and "frequent support" for the Greens. He implores supporters: "Please pray that Mr Moyes will fulfil his verbal advice in 2008 to the CDP management committee that he would plan resigning in 2009 when he would be eligible for the parliamentary pension."
Dr Moyes, as he prefers to be known, insists he will do no such thing. Rather, he will stick around in the party and State Parliament's upper house to resist Mr Nile, who he says is anti-Muslim, anti-gay, extremist and too old. Mr Nile is 74; Dr Moyes is 70.
First, to Mr Nile. Is it a Christian act to ask followers to pray for the removal of a political enemy? And in any case, is God concerned with the internal squabbles of his little party?
"As Jesus said, even if a sparrow falls to the ground, God knows," Mr Nile told the Herald yesterday. And yes, God is interested in politics. "Romans, [chapter] 13: Government is to be the servant of God. That's why I'm in politics."
What of Dr Moyes's charge that he has driven the party to be "everything that is anti-gay"?
"We're not anti-gay," Mr Nile says. "Our policy on this was formed 30 years ago and we have never been pro-homosexual. We are pro-marriage and pro-family. We believe God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve. If Mr Moyes does not agree with us he should never have joined [us]."
Anti-Muslim? "We're concerned about the impact of Islam if the Muslim population continues to grow … We want Australia to remain a Christian nation that accepts other religions … which do not try to impose their beliefs on the nation. It is a matter of religious-political belief for Muslims that wherever they go they must govern politically."
Mr Nile invited Dr Moyes to take the place of his wife, Elaine, in the Legislative Council in 2003. "At that stage he promised his loyalty and support and said he would never challenge my leadership," Mr Nile said.
"I trusted him. I obviously made a mistake."
Dr Moyes once described Mr Nile as a pathetic, friendless figure who works all day with his door closed and "eats his fast-food meals alone and he spends every night alone in a cheap motel in western Sydney".
Yesterday Dr Moyes issued a statement saying: "I do not want to comment apart from saying that for a long time I have been trying to move the Christian Democratic Party in a more Christian direction, away from the anti-Muslim immigration, anti-Muslim schools for the children of Australian citizens, and everything that is anti-gay.
"On environmental issues, climate change and social justice, the Greens are far more Christian than climate sceptics and those who back the exploiters of the poor and homeless."
Of Mr Nile he said: "Today, no Christian denomination supports his extremism."
But does God?
Will Mr Nile's prayers - and those of his followers - be answered?
"God's will be done," Mr Nile says.
"If it is God's will that he should stay and remain a thorn in our side, then so be it.
"But I'd find that hard to understand."
IN WHAT may be dubbed the Great Wall of Macquarie Street, the split between Fred Nile and his Upper House colleague, Gordon Moyes, has boiled over to the point where the two cannot share an office and want a wall built between them.
Mr Nile forced Dr Moyes's expulsion from their Christian Democratic Party last Saturday and demanded he quit Parliament. But Dr Moyes, who is appealing the decision, is refusing to go. "We have become more of a personality cult than a political party," he said.
In October Dr Moyes's two staffers alleged they were being "intimidated" by Mr Nile's two staffers, leading Dr Moyes to ask for a separate office. But Parliament could not afford it and now they want a wall erected.
Mr Nile says the dispute began before the 2007 election when Dr Moyes demanded the party nominate him as upper house president. He says Dr Moyes shouted at him: "I demand you nominate me, or you will pay!"
Mr Nile says he agreed to nominate Dr Moyes, who attracted two votes in the ballot: his own and Mr Nile's.
Dr Moyes does not dispute the words, but denies he raised his voice. He says it is all about Mr Nile's "anti-gay, anti-Muslim agenda".