The Reverend Fred Nile, whose vote would be crucial to passing any legislation to effect the change, said the abolition of the title of QC more than two decades ago was part of an agenda of "sneaking republicanism".

The Christian Democratic Party MP said he would be "happy to put the bill up myself" to restore the title.

Moves to resurrect the title for silks - who have been known as Senior Counsel since 1993 - gathered momentum last week when the NSW Bar Association resolved to lobby the state government over the controversial issue.

The title has already been reintroduced in Victoria and Queensland but the issue has caused major division in the ranks of the NSW profession.

The government has not yet indicated whether it will support the push. Attorney-General Gabrielle Upton has said she would "need to understand the rationale for it and how that serves the system of justice".

The shadow attorney-general, Paul Lynch, said Labor remained "resolutely opposed" to the move and neither QC nor King's Counsel were "appropriate titles in contemporary twenty-first century Australia".

"They're on par with Prince Philip being granted an Australian knighthood," he said. "They are redolent of an archaic, imperial and pompous age that is, thankfully, long past."

Greens MP David Shoebridge, the party's justice spokesman, said the change would represent "the NSW bar leaping back to the 19th century".

He said those in favour of the change might believe they would be able to charge more as a QC, but the Greens were of the view that "senior members of the bar already receive more than adequate remuneration".

Those who support the change say it would bring NSW into line with the eastern states and prevent competitive disadvantage in the Asian market.

The NSW Bar Association's governing body had resolved not to pursue the matter last year. However, a pro-QC "ticket" of barristers seized control of the Bar Council in November, giving it the voting muscle to change the association's policy.

Bar Council minutes reveal members of the pro-QC camp tried to pass a resolution earlier this month to effect the change in policy outside a meeting and "without all members of the council being aware of the purported resolution".

It prompted Bar Association President Jane Needham, SC, to seek an opinion from Bret Walker, SC, who "raised serious doubts as to the validity of the purported resolutions".

Nevertheless, the council later agreed to adopt the policy that silks should be able to elect to "use the title Queen's Counsel ... or King's Counsel as the case may be".

A working party chaired by Ms Needham – who was not on the pro-QC ticket – will advance the policy and present it to government.