From The Sydney Morning Herald
O'Farrell bows to Nile over ethics
By Sean Nicholls
July 30, 2011
Success ... Fred Nile has had a "very positive, co-operative and friendly meeting"
with the government. Photo: Jon Reid
THE state government has bowed to pressure from Fred Nile and will consider removing ethics classes from schools only months after they began.
A deal the Christian Democratic Party MP says he has struck with the Premier, Barry O'Farrell, places at risk the Coalition's election promise not to remove the classes, which began in February under the former Labor government as an alternative to religious education lessons.
But it also presents Mr Nile and the government with a potential compromise over the issue, on which neither has been willing to give ground since it re-emerged two weeks ago.
A deal the Christian Democratic Party MP says he has struck with the Premier, Barry O'Farrell, places at risk the Coalition's election promise not to remove the classes, which began in February under the former Labor government as an alternative to religious education lessons.
But it also presents Mr Nile and the government with a potential compromise over the issue, on which neither has been willing to give ground since it re-emerged two weeks ago.
Mr O'Farrell, Mr Nile and the leader of the house in the Legislative Council, Duncan Gay, met on Thursday to discuss the impasse, which has threatened to grow into a full-blown crisis for the government.
