Obituaries Australia

Elaine Nile did not grow up in a Christian household although her parents, following the practice of the day, insisted on her going to Sunday school, which she resented.

Her upbringing was ordinary and working class and she left school at 14 to help her family. But all that changed when she and her future husband, Fred, seeking to belong to the Congregational church tennis club at Revesby – requiring them to attend church – were inspired by the preaching they received and made a commitment to the Christian faith.

From that time, as husband Fred blazed a trail to reinforce traditional Christian morality in the community – taking him into the NSW Legislative Council for more than 30 years – she followed and supported him all the way. She never left his side, never abandoned her commitments and served nearly 15 years in the Legislative Council in her own right.

Elaine Blanche Crealy was born in Waterloo on March 20, 1936, daughter of a glassblower, Luke Crealy, and Jessie (nee Allen). The family, which included a sister, Grace, lived in a rented terraced house. She first went to school in Redfern.

When the family moved to Revesby, Elaine attended Gardeners Road Girls High, Mascot. She completed her Intermediate Certificate, left school and became an office worker. Her job classification became that of a comptometrist, handling accounts.

Fred's family had also moved to Revesby and the two met on the tennis court. Their love grew and they became engaged in September 1955. The marriage had to wait until Fred finished his theological studies in Melbourne and Sydney and it was not until December 1958 that they tied the knot. She went with him when he was appointed to the Congregational church at Mayfield, a suburb of Newcastle. Stipends were low and to make ends meet she became a housekeeper with the Dial-an-Angel agency.

Fred Nile was ordained in the Congregational church in 1964. He was appointed full-time youth director for the Christian Endeavour youth movement, a project of the Methodist, Presbyterian, Congregational and Baptist churches.

Elaine supported Fred when he was invited by the Reverend Alan Walker to work as his assistant minister at the Wesley Central Mission, where she helped troubled youth. From 1974, she worked with him when he was invited to lead the Australian Festival of Light and Community Standards Organisation. In 1976-77, Elaine worked as a police matron at Darlinghurst courts, counselling and helping those women who came before the courts.

In 1981, Fred stood for Parliament for the Call to Australia Party and was elected. Elaine formed a ministry for women, called Women for the Family, and took a firm stand with the Festival of Light against issues the group considered unbiblical and immoral, including drug abuse, homosexuality and prostitution.

She began managing the Australian Christian Solidarity newspaper and was an organiser and lecturer at her old school in Mascot. In 1988, she was elected to the Legislative Council for the Call to Australia Party. She gained 183,000 primary votes and a final total of 240,676 and took her place beside her husband. Intrinsically conservative, she supported the present constitutional system, winning praise from Australians for Constitutional Monarchy.

Elaine introduced a bill to close private abortion clinics. She spoke on issues including the gay mardi gras, adoptions by homosexuals, drug abuse among youth, sexual abuse by clergy, family planning, condom vending machines in schools, age of consent for homosexuals and pornography.

She also spoke in Parliament on issues including land valuations, hormone treatment for blood disorders, the M5 motorway exhaust stack, level crossing signposting, Homebush Bay green and gold frogs and Narara Valley high school counselling. A member of the parliamentary select committee into police promotion, she conducted investigations into police procedures and administration in Wollongong and Sutherland. She also conducted investigations at police headquarters in London, Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Toronto and Amsterdam.

The couple attracted controversy and ridicule. But the public kept re-electing them. Elaine introduced a Sexual Offence Damages Bill and a Nudity (Indecent Exposure) in Public Places Prohibition Bill. Her most controversial bill was the Medically Acquired AIDS Victims Compensation Bill, seeking compensation for people who had acquired AIDS through blood transfusions. That brought a protest from the homosexual community, which questioned the concept of innocence and said that members of their community with the disease should get compensation too. The Niles successfully opposed amendments to the NSW Anti-Discrimination Act to create offences of homosexual vilification.

But the campaign by the Niles was not all on morality. Elaine was a member of the parliamentary study committee on AIDS. With her husband, she recognised the disease as a serious blight on the community and took an overseas trip to look at AIDS health clinics, including in the US and Britain, to try to see how other communities were dealing with the disease. With her husband, she found herself holding the balance of power in the Legislative Council, a role she described as ''the balance of prayer and responsibility''.

She also attracted the ridicule of feminists because of her traditional views on the role of women. The feminists invented the ''Elaine'' award for the person who made statements that were considered the most unhelpful to ''the sisterhood''.

Elaine Nile took an active part in the formation of the Christian Democratic Party, which replaced the Call to Australia Party. She announced her resignation from Parliament in 2000 but changed her mind because her replacement, John Bradford, would be required to be separated from his family for months if he took the seat.

Elaine finally resigned in 2002, on the grounds of health. In 2007, she stood as number two on the Christian Democratic Party ticket for the Senate behind Paul Green, who reiterated the party's policy of having a 10-year moratorium on Muslim immigration.

The following year she was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma of the liver and only given six days to live. Elaine Nile fought the disease, at one point undergoing radical therapy where radiation was injected into the bloodstream. She said several times she was ''absent from the body, present with the Lord''. Elaine Nile died last Monday at the Calvary Hospital in Georges Hall. A thanksgiving service will be held at 11am on Wednesday at the Calvary Chapel Auditorium in Kogarah.

Elaine Nile is survived by Fred, their children Stephen, Sharon, Mark and David and grandchildren Joshua, Jessica, Montana, Jack, Matilda Lily, Elijah and Briarna.