The Christian Democratic Party (CDP) is a minor political party in Australia. Its leader is Fred Nile, a Congregational Church minister and a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council.

The CDP grew out of earlier political groups in New South Wales such as Call to Australia and the Festival of Light, with which Nile has been associated for more than 30 years. These groups have all sought to mobilise conservative and evangelical Protestants as an electoral force. Nile was elected to the Legislative Council in 1981, and in 1988 his wife Elaine Nile was also elected. She retired from the Council in 2003 and was succeeded by Rev Gordon Moyes, the CDP President and a well-known television evangelist.

The Niles have built a small but stable electoral base among Protestants in New South Wales, particularly in the "Bible Belt" suburbs of north-western Sydney and in some country areas, but the CDP has never succeeded in expanding its electoral base further. It has little support among Catholics or outside NSW.

The party concentrates almost exclusively on "moral" issues such as abortion, homosexuality and British Judeo-Christian political and legal systems.

"When the people of NSW vote at the next Federal Election, I will be giving them the opportunity to make it a type of Referendum, on the important institution of marriage, by voting [1] for Fred Nile in the Senate," Nile said in announcing his candidature.

"It is also important that we prevent the radical Brown Green Party, which is really a watermelon party - Green on the outside but red (socialist) and pink (homosexual) on the inside, gaining a throttle hold on the Senate. The Greens have already, unsuccessfully, tried to ban prayer in the Senate and reduce funding for Christian schools etc. I will be counting on Number One Senate votes from all family_loving Australians, not just Church_goers."

In a comment on "why Australians should elect Fred Nile," Moyes said: "In this Federal election it is absolutely vital for Christians for vote for Christian candidates and for the Christian party. Our Christian heritage is under attack from pagan and secularist forces, militant Islamic groups, a neo communism under a Green guise and a strident homosexual lobby that has successfully gained the support of the Labor Party, Australian Democrats and the Greens, and many from the left of the Liberal Party."

The CDP has generally been viewed by mainstream politics as an extremist fundamentalist Christian political party. All major Christian leaders in Australia tend to distance themselves from the CDP, at least in public.

Nile made an unsuccessful bid for a seat in the Australian Senate at the 2004 federal elections. A new party with strong but unofficial links to Christian groups, the Family First Party, attracted more votes nationwide.

External link

• Christian Democratic Party website (http://www.cdp.org.au/main.asp)