A defiant Gareth Ward has vowed to continue representing the people of Kiama after his suspension from parliament, as the New South Wales government seeks advice on cutting the embattled former minister’s salary and benefits.
The Kiama MP was suspended from parliament on Thursday, until the charges against him are resolved. Ward was charged by police earlier this week over the alleged sexual abuse of a 17-year-old boy and a man.
Ward, who moved to the crossbench last year after revealing he was the subject of a criminal investigation, has denied the allegations and indicated he will be fighting the charges.
On Thursday, acting premier Paul Toole told the parliament that the government would not move to expel the former Liberal minister to safeguard the pending criminal trial.
The motion to suspend was supported by the opposition.
Ward, who has not been in parliament this week, released a statement using his electorate email after the suspension. He said he was “extremely disappointed”, vowing to continue representing the people of his electorate.
“The effect of the decision is that I am unable to speak and vote in parliament,” he said.
“I will, however, continue to represent and lobby for my local community as its democratically elected member of parliament. As challenging a time as this is for me personally, I have an important job to do and I intend to get on with it.”
The government has sought legal advice of whether another MP or a parliamentary secretary could represent Ward’s electorate in the interim to ensure voters weren’t denied services.
Toole said that the move to suspend Ward was the “strongest action” available to the government given the house was unable to rule on his guilt or innocence – noting it was a job for the courts.
He said the government was not moving to suspend the member’s pay because it did not have that power, but was looking at other options.
Toole reminded all members of the house that they should not discuss the charges or allegations against Ward to avoid a mistrial.
“The most significant of these risks is the possibility that alleged victims will be deprived of their day in court,” Toole told parliament.
The opposition leader, Chris Minns, has confirmed Labor is seeking advice over alternative options, including whether the member could be expelled, the suspension of Ward’s salary and if it is appropriate for him to be stripped of access to his electorate office through a referral to the privileges committee.
NSW premier, Dominic Perrottet, said on Tuesday when charges were first laid that, while Ward was entitled to the presumption of innocence, he should fight the charges as a private citizen and he would seek to remove the member from parliament if he did not resign.
Ward has been grated conditional bail and will appear at Port Kembla local court in May.
• In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. If you or someone you know is impacted by sexual assault, family or domestic violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or visit www.1800RESPECT.org.au. In an emergency, call 000. International helplines can be found via www.befrienders.org.
