New South Wales politicians are facing a potential constitutional showdown with the state’s supreme court over parliament’s attempt to expel local MP and convicted rapist Gareth Ward.
The Minns government was seeking an urgent hearing in the supreme court on Tuesday to lift an ex parte injunction granted the previous day to Ward. It prevented parliament, for now, from moving to expel the member for Kiama.
Ward commenced the proceedings on Monday night via his lawyers from Silverwater jail, where he has been remanded pending sentencing in September.
Ward has said he will appeal his July criminal convictions on three counts of indecent assault and one for sexual intercourse without consent involving two young men in incidents that occurred in 2013 and 2015.
The leader of the Legislative Assembly, Ron Hoenig, told reporters that the government did not believe the court had the constitutional power to restrain the parliament or any member from moving a motion in the lower house.
However, “out of respect for the court,” the parliament would apply for a more urgent hearing date, when it would seek to have the injunction lifted.
Justice Deborah Sweeney, the duty judge in the supreme court, granted Ward an urgent application for the injunction on Monday night after the government notified the MP and his lawyers of Tuesday’s proposed motion to expel him.
He was invited to submit any arguments he wished to make. The government did not have an opportunity to make submissions to the court on Monday night.
Hoenig said the government’s position was that the court order had “no effect [and] are not binding on the house”.
“The house has an inherent power, in accordance with the constitution, unconstrained by any order. However, because the order has been made by the supreme court of NSW, I have instructed the crown solicitors to approch her honour as soon as possible to reconsider the order she has made to allow the house to conduct its business … as it has for 169 years,” the leader of the house said.
“The issue is of considerable significance. The house needs to be able to make its [expulsion decision] to protect itself, and we will be making an approach to the judge as early as today.”
Hoenig said the scheduled hearing on Friday was too late, as the parliament was due to rise then and would need to be recalled if Ward’s injunction was not dealt with more swiftly.
The NSW premier, Chris Minns, has made it clear Ward should resign – or the government would remove him via an expulsion motion.
“We’ve got a week of parliament to sit, and I think that most people would appreciate, it’s an unconscionable situation to have someone who’s currently sitting in jail in Silverwater, convicted of serious sexual offences, who is demanding to remain a member of parliament and continue to be paid,” Minns told 2GB radio on Tuesday.
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Ward’s conviction has plunged the NSW parliament into uncharted territory.
As an independent member, he has not been under the usual pressure to resign from a political party. Therefore, the parliament was having to rely on a little-used inherent power to protect itself if the conduct of a member would damage the integrity of the parliament and endanger its proper functioning.
The government had planned to begin moves to expel Ward on Tuesday, with a vote expected on Wednesday.
The opposition leader, Mark Speakman, said the Coalition would support the government seeking Ward’s expulsion.
“Every day he clings to his seat from a jail cell, taxpayers are footing the bill, and the people of Kiama are left voiceless. It’s not just wrong, it’s offensive,” Speakman said on Tuesday.
In 2021, Ward left the Liberal party and moved to the crossbench after identifying himself as the state MP under investigation by the child abuse and sex crimes squad.
When charges were laid in March 2022, the then NSW premier, Dominic Perrottet, called for his resignation. Later that month, Ward was suspended after a motion unanimously passed the Legislative Assembly. In August 2022, Ward was committed to stand trial.
But Ward’s voters in the south coast state seat of Kiama re-elected him in March 2023 and he returned to Macquarie Street.
