{"id":92728,"date":"2025-07-26T00:31:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-26T00:31:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/92728\/"},"modified":"2025-07-26T00:31:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T00:31:12","slug":"nsw-mp-gareth-ward-likely-to-be-removed-from-parliament-after-conviction-for-sex-crimes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/92728\/","title":{"rendered":"NSW MP Gareth Ward likely to be removed from parliament after conviction for sex crimes"},"content":{"rendered":"

A sitting member of the NSW parliament has been convicted of serious sexual offences \u2014 so what happens next?<\/p>\n

The independent member for Kiama, Gareth Ward, was found guilty of four offences relating to the sexual abuse of two young men after a nine-week trial in the NSW District Court.<\/p>\n

Following the verdict, the NSW government swiftly called for the 44-year-old to resign from parliament<\/a> \u2014 claiming his position was “no longer tenable”.<\/p>\n

Even the Liberal Party \u2014 the previous party of Ward \u2014 said the politician had breached public trust and his crimes were an “abuse of power”.<\/p>\n

The conviction of a sitting politician for serious crimes is a rare event.<\/p>\n

Ward was previously barred from parliament when the allegations first surfaced, but his shock re-election saw him return.<\/p>\n

Now that he has been found guilty by a jury, will he be removed from office?<\/p>\n

\"Man<\/p>\n

Gareth Ward leaving court on Friday after receiving the guilty verdict. (ABC News: Sean Tarek Goodwin)<\/p>\n

MP convicted of ‘infamous crime’<\/p>\n

The NSW Constitution contains provisions for expelling sitting members convicted of an “infamous crime” \u2014 that is an offence that carries a maximum sentence of more than five years.<\/p>\n

All four of Gareth Ward’s offences meet that criterion, with the most serious offence \u2014 sexual intercourse without consent \u2014 carrying a maximum prison term of 14 years.<\/p>\n

However, the politician’s seat will not be vacated just yet.<\/p>\n

Sexual assault\u00a0support lines:<\/p>\n

Ward has 28 days to lodge an appeal in the NSW District Court, and his seat in parliament will not be declared vacant until the challenge is resolved.<\/p>\n

However, these provisions do not interfere with the powers of the House to expel members.<\/p>\n

Election analyst Ben Raue is a close observer of Australian politics.<\/p>\n

He said the NSW parliament has powers to remove politicians.<\/p>\n

“I can’t imagine they would have issues passing a motion of suspension, I think that would be the bare minimum to be honest,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I think probably Chris Minns is hoping that Gareth Ward just resigns from parliament now and saves him the trouble.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mr Raue said NSW parliament is in unchartered waters with this case.<\/p>\n

“It is very unusual,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I have never heard of it happening, certainly not in the modern era of modern party politics.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

After the verdict, Ward was granted bail release to return home ahead of a hearing on Wednesday where the Crown will seek to have the politician taken into custody ahead of his sentence.<\/p>\n

By-election in Kiama ‘likely’<\/p>\n

The verdict was handed down more than three years after Ward was first charged.<\/a><\/p>\n

The then-Liberal politician was stood down from his portfolio as the NSW Minister for Families, Communities and Disability Services after it emerged that he was the subject of a police investigation.<\/p>\n

\"Man<\/p>\n

NSW MP Gareth Ward arriving at court during the ninth week of his trial. (ABC News: Patrick Thomas)<\/p>\n

In 2022 he was suspended from parliament after he refused to resign over the allegations.<\/p>\n

“That is one of the things that is so odd about this case is normally when people are facing serious criminal charges like this, they resign from their public office,” said Mr Raue.<\/p>\n

Despite the case hanging over his head and his inability to represent his community in the parliament \u2014 constituents in Kiama re-elected him in 2023, allowing him to return to parliament.<\/p>\n

“I think it is a sign of how popular he had been that he managed to get re-elected,” said Mr Raue.<\/p>\n

“I think there was a recognition that the voters had their say and until he is convicted, he is a member of parliament.”<\/p>\n

Mr Raue said the conviction means voters in Kiama are likely to be returning to the polls.<\/p>\n

“I think it is likely now we will see a by-election at some point \u2014 either he resigns, or he is expelled,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A sitting member of the NSW parliament has been convicted of serious sexual offences \u2014 so what happens…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":92729,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4740,281,60258,60263,60262,12651,60261,50,61312,2853,10410,10409],"class_list":{"0":"post-92728","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-court","10":"tag-gareth-ward","11":"tag-gareth-ward-guilty","12":"tag-gareth-ward-verdict","13":"tag-guilty","14":"tag-kiama-mp","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-nsw-mp","17":"tag-parliament","18":"tag-sexual-abuse","19":"tag-sexual-assault"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114916719639329380","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92728\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}