Guilty verdict has wiped the creepy smile off Gareth Ward’s face. Now he must resign

Most days for the past two months, Gareth Ward has walked into a Sydney courtroom wearing a huge smile and giving an occasional wave to the cameras. It has been a jarring and creepy display from an MP on trial for serious sexual assault offences.

By last Friday, the smile had been wiped from his face after a jury found the former Liberal minister-turned independent MP indecently assaulted an 18-year-old man at his Shoalhaven home on the South Coast in 2013 three times, and had sexual intercourse without consent with a 24-year-old political staffer in Potts Point in 2015.

Gareth Ward arriving at his trial and leaving after the guilty verdict.Credit: Dylan Coker

He remains on bail until a detention application is made by prosecutors on Wednesday.

The former minister for families, communities and disability services during Gladys Berejiklian’s second term as premier was charged with the offences in 2022. He was suspended from parliament but returned after his astonishing re-election in the seat of Kiama at the March 2023 poll.

Ward has also been caught up in all manner of other scandals, but nothing that meets the threshold of a criminal offence. Friday’s guilty verdict should rid Macquarie Street of him once and for all. Ward has so far shown no interest in resigning, and parliament has limited options to force him out.

Premier Chris Minns has demanded Ward resign. On Monday, Minns rightly said NSW was in a “ridiculous” situation where someone convicted of incredibly serious sexual assault offences could remain a member of parliament. “You name me one workplace in the world where that person would continue to be an employee facing that kind of jail time,” he said.

Opposition Leader Mark Speakman also demanded Ward quit. “There is no excuse for the criminal behaviour which the jury has found occurred beyond reasonable doubt – a complete abuse of power which has no place anywhere, let alone by those entrusted by the public to represent them.”

In NSW, an MP is unable to stay in parliament if they make an allegiance to a foreign power, are declared bankrupt or are convicted of an “infamous crime” or offence punishable by imprisonment for a term of five years or more.

Ward should resign. While he may not be expelled by parliament, he will almost certainly be suspended, meaning he can’t properly represent the electorate while he exhausts all legal options, including a potential appeal.

The Herald recently called for an examination of mechanisms available to parliament to deal with rogue MPs amid the recent fallout surrounding Mark Latham. While Latham’s behaviour does not fall in the same category as Ward’s, he has repeatedly disgraced himself and parliament but can’t be forced out under the current rules.

There is a good need to tread gently on any changes to how a duly elected MP is banished from parliament. But the farce surrounding Ward is another demonstration that the rules are no longer fit for purpose.

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