New South Wales MP Gareth Ward has resigned from parliament just moments before moves to have expelled were set to take place.
The member for Kiama was convicted of three counts of indecent assault and one for sexual intercourse without consent. The charges relate to two separate incidents that occurred a decade ago, he is currently behind bars at Cessnock prison awaiting sentencing. He has indicated he will appeal the conviction.
Despite calls from all sides of politics to step down Ward had refused to resign and continued to receive his parliamentary salary and benefits.
This week he gained an interim injunction in the New South Wales Supreme Court that sought to halt the process of expelling him from parliament, yesterday the court ruled that the process could proceed. It would have made Ward the first person to be expelled from the state’s lower house in over a century.
The resignation now means a by-election will be held for the seat of Kiama. Ward was a member of the Liberal party when he was first elected to parliament in 2011. After he was charged over the offences in 2022, Ward was suspended from the NSW parliament after the charged were placed. He was re-elected to the seat at the 2023 election as an independent.
The Leader of the House, Ron Hoenig, said he would withdraw the motion to expel Ward, and welcomed his resignation.
“It is regrettable that this house has been put through this difficulty. But better late than never. It is better to avoid having to do something that the house hasn’t done in 107 years,” Hoenig said.
Premier Chris Minns said Ward should have resigned much earlier, and the government would seek to recover the costs of the Supreme Court action from Ward.
“A lot of time, effort and energy was spent in the NSW supreme court proving what most people who live in this state would have known instinctively. And that is, if you are convicted of some of the most serious charges – sexual assault in NSW – you can’t sit as a serving member of parliament drawing a parliamentary salary,” he told the media on Friday.
“How can you represent your community from behind bars?”
Opposition leader Mark Speakman was also critical of Ward’s conduct, describing it as a “five minutes to midnight” resignation.
“What the member for Kiama has done in the past couple of weeks, playing games with his constituents, playing games with you, Mr Speaker, playing games with the government and the opposition and the general public, is disgraceful,” Speakman said.
“He has already been convicted of serious, very serious, sexual offences, and I think every member of this chamber’s heart would go out to the victim survivors of those offences, who, no doubt, continue to be traumatised and retraumatised by the cat and mouse game that has gone on in the past fortnight.” Speakman said.
