But there were plenty of charges of hypocrisy being levelled at Nile when, having agitated to defeat the bill, he fronted a media conference to declare he would be ''celebrating the victory at my own marriage in December''.

Asked if he had a message to gays and lesbians who perhaps felt they, too, were entitled to enjoy such a marriage, Nile protested that he was not against gays and lesbians living together, just that they wanted to call it marriage.

''I am very happy for everybody to love anybody they want to love,'' he said.

But hadn't Nile railed against the sinfulness of homosexuality for decades? ''I'm not talking about sodomy,'' he replied.

It was quite the feat of logical and moral contortion. But Nile, of course, has long proven himself adept at such manoeuvres, as another recent example has confirmed.

For many onlookers Nile's overt support for James Packer being granted a casino licence at Barangaroo was curious, to say the least.