The New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, has banned members of his government from directly answering questions posed by Gareth Ward, who was re-elected to parliament in March after being charged with sexual assault offences.
The independent Kiama MP was last year suspended from the parliament after being charged by police, in a move that blocked him from attending the premises on Macquarie St and voting on legislation.
He pleaded not guilty to the charges in earlier this year and has previously said he looked forward to proving his innocence in court.
After being re-elected in the March state election, he has returned to parliament.
Minns refused to answer a question about disability policy posed by Ward during the first question time of the new parliament on Wednesday, instead taking it on notice.
He later said he had advised all ministers to do the same until a position on Ward’s future in parliament had been settled by the privileges committee, which has been asked to consider whether the former Liberal should be suspended again..
“It’s appropriate given the context of that inquiry … that any questions that he asked me or my ministers be taken under advice and I’ll reply formally to his inquiries,” Minns told reporters on Wednesday.
“It’s up to the privileges inquiry [as to] what the recommendation will be for his continued service in the legislative assembly.”
He added: “I don’t want to prejudge their inquiries and I don’t want to prejudge what the committee returns to the legislative assembly with. Until we get a judgment from them, I’m going to take his questions on notice.”
The matter was referred to the committee on Wednesday afternoon.
Ward said the decision by Minns to not directly answer questions was disrespectful to the people of Kiama and people with disabilities.
“Mr Minns’ refusal to answer my questions on disability policy is something you’d expect from an opposition leader - not a premier,” he said.
“As one of two people in the legislative assembly with lived experience of disability, I was somewhat shocked that the premier boasted about snubbing a measured and reasonable question about an important issue.”
The opposition leader, Mark Speakman, said the people of Kiama needed to be respected and as such, Ward’s questions should be answered on the floor of parliament.
“Mr Ward had a perfectly legitimate question … and it should have been answered in the conventional way,” he said.
Speakman said it was “incumbent on parliamentarians” to respect voters who reinstalled Ward to parliament.
Police have alleged Ward indecently assaulted a 17-year-old on the NSW south coast in February 2013 and that he raped a 27-year-old man in Sydney in September 2015.
He has been charged with five criminal offences, including sexual intercourse without consent, three counts of assault with indecency and common assault, which is an alternative charge to one of the indecency offences.
