A sitting politician who argued his sexual abuse convictions were not enough to expel him from state parliament has lost a court bid to halt a vote removing him as an MP.
Gareth Ward, 44, remains the member for the NSW South Coast seat of Kiama while he awaits sentencing for sexually assaulting an intoxicated political staffer after a midweek event in the state’s parliament in 2015.
The former state families minister was also found to have sexually abused a drunken 18-year-old man at his South Coast home in 2013.
A Labor-led vote to expel Ward from parliament, slated for Wednesday, was delayed after a court ordered a halt at the MP’s request.
That injunction was dismissed by the NSW Court of Appeal on Thursday, paving the way for a parliamentary debate on Friday as to whether Ward should be removed.
“The fact that Mr Ward has file a notice of intention to appeal does not affect the power of the assembly to expel him,” Chief Justice Andrew Bell said.
The chief judge ordered the sitting MP to pay the assembly’s costs of the lawsuit and rebuked him for launching the legal bid without giving his opponents proper notice on Monday, saying it was not appropriate.
At a hearing earlier in the day, the MP’s barrister Peter King argued a letter he received from the Labor government about the planned expulsion vote only referred to the convictions and did not lay out a case for Ward’s expulsion.
The letter did not detail any “unworthy conduct” – the expulsion power Labor is relying on to turf Ward – he told a panel of three Court of Appeal judges.
Four MPs have been expelled from NSW parliament, the last in 1969, under the “unworthy conduct” power.
“Are you seriously submitting that (Ward’s) convictions … are not conduct unworthy?” Chief Justice Andrew Bell asked.
“The four counts are evidence of the fact of conviction, but they’re not evidence of the facts which underlie that conviction,” King replied.
When the barrister tried again to make the same argument, Justice Jeremy Kirk chimed in.
“There can’t be any mystery about it: he was tried publicly on an indictment,” the judge said.
“He, of all people, must know what behaviour led to his conviction.”
Even if he staves off the vote, Ward faces automatic expulsion under a separate power if he fails to overturn his convictions on appeal.
King also attacked the proposed motion to expel Ward now as unlawfully punitive by denying him a parliamentary return if he won a conviction appeal.
The jailed MP could also not speak against the motion in parliament.
“In short, he is to be expelled by a kangaroo court,” King said.
Lawyers for parliamentary speaker Greg Piper denied the proposed expulsion was punitive.
Instead, it was the lower house protecting the trust and confidence of its members as well as the community, barrister Craig Lenehan SC argued.
Ward had been given “all the procedural fairness in the world”, including an offer to provide lengthy written submissions against his expulsion, in circumstances where parliament could have just moved against him without notice.
Any expulsion of Ward will trigger a by-election in the electorate he has held since 2011.
Initially running under the Liberal banner, he secured a 2023 poll win as an independent, despite having been charged with sexual assault and suspended from parliament.
A vote to expel him is almost certain to pass with support from leaders of Labor and the coalition.
“The Opposition is ready to have Gareth Ward expelled from parliament forthwith,” Opposition Leader Mark Speakman said in a statement after Thursday’s court ruling.
Ward has been remanded in custody ahead of his sentence for the sexual assaults.
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028
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