Labor to use rare powers to expel disgraced NSW MP Daryl Maguire

Labor will use rare parliamentary powers — not used in a century — to try to expel disgraced Liberal MP Daryl Maguire.

NSW MP Daryl Maguire still from a video on Facebook in which Mr Maguire said he was sorry for breaching “a very strict code of conduct and I have to suffer the consequences”.

Labor will use rare parliamentary powers — not used in a century — to try to expel disgraced Liberal MP Daryl Maguire from the NSW Parliament.

Acting Labor leader Michael Daley said today the NSW Premier’s weak leadership and the dogged refusal of Mr Maguire to leave parliament after revelations at an anti corruption hearing last week had forced his party’s hand.

Under Standing Orders 254 a member of parliament found guilty of “unworthy conduct” can be forced from office on a vote from the floor of the Legislative Assembly.

Mr Daley said a motion would be put to parliament when it returns on August 7. Labor would need majority support for the motion to expel Mr Maguire. But if successful it would trigger an immediate by-election of Mr Maguire’s seat of Wagga Wagga in the state’s south west.

The standing order has only ever succeeded three times — and not since 1917.

Mr Daley said NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, who is on holidays, had failed to manage the crisis following revelations in the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption last week that Mr Maguire had been using his parliamentary position to tout for kick backs from “mega rich” Chinese developers.

Mr Maguire boasted on secretly recorded telephone calls that he had a number of “mega rich, mega big” Chinese developers keen to do property deals — but he wanted a cut.

“If [NSW Premier] Gladys Berejiklian won’t show leadership we will,” Mr Daley told reporters.

The Nationals are keen for Mr Maguire to resign because a byelection would give them a chance to seize the seat from the Liberal Party.

The Nationals are expected to abstain from the vote. But with the support of the cross bench its likely Labor will have the numbers to expel Mr Maguire from Parliament.