Continue to Wear Out the Seat, Fred!
Over the years I have been invited to many celebrations to mark significant anniversaries for politicians. For example I attended the twenty-fifth and thirtieth anniversaries of John Howard and Phillip Ruddock being elected to Parliament. This week we celebrate Fred Nile’s twenty-fifth anniversary, and after a successful re-election campaign next March, I hope we will celebrate his thirtieth anniversary.
The red leather seat in the NSW Legislative Council where Fred has for 25 years, and Elaine for 14 years, have sat, is more worn than any other seat in the House. That is because it has been used for more hours than any other seat in Parliament. That is because Fred and Elaine and myself have had a policy of sitting in the Parliament all the time Parliament is sitting, from the saying of prayers early in the morning, until the last piece of business late at night. We were elected by the people of NSW to represent them in Parliament, and we stay in Parliament and take part in the debate on every bill.
We are the only people from any party or anyone else, including the clerks, who stay all day every day. The other members are on roster systems, and spend most of their days in their offices. No one else except Fred and I take part in the debates on every bill. We, helped by our staff, prepare positions on every bill although we do not necessarily both speak on the same subject. What is important is the Christian Democratic Party does speak on every bill, examining it from the perspective of Christian moral and family viewpoints.
So the two-person bench seat is wearing out! I have been sitting in recent years in a seat alongside the CDP seat allowing Fred to spread his papers and giving to me a table for my computer which is plugged in every day to the internet and emails, so that, alone among all politicians, I reply to every e-mail myself from within Parliament House itself. Usually I reply within the hour or so of receiving it.
Fred’s consistency and faithfulness in representing the Christian viewpoint is legendary. He must be re-elected to continue his work. We give thanks to God for the 25 years Fred has been in Parliament, and ask that he should be given good health for his next term.
GORDON MOYES
