A convicted sex offender MP who was drawing a parliamentary salary while in jail has bowed to pressure and resigned his seat as former colleagues prepared to vote on his expulsion.
Kiama MP Gareth Ward resigned an hour before representatives were due to vote to expel him from the NSW parliament.
The former families minister had previously ignored widespread calls to vacate his south coast seat while he awaited sentencing for sexually assaulting an intoxicated political staffer after a parliamentary event in 2015.
The 44-year-old was also found to have sexually abused a drunken 18-year-old man at his home on the NSW South Coast in 2013.
Ward wrote to Speaker Greg Piper on Friday to announce his resignation, narrowly avoiding becoming the first lower-house MP to be expelled from the state parliament in more than 100 years.
Leader of the lower house Ron Hoenig withdrew his expulsion motion after the resignation, adding it was "shameful" it had taken so long.
"I would have thought being a convicted rapist is enough infamy without going down in history as both a convicted rapist as well as the first person in a century to be expelled," he said.
Opposition Leader Mark Speakman said his party would have voted to expel Ward.
"He can exercise his appeal rights, he can protest his innocence, if that's what he wants to do, but his constituents come first," he said.
"Playing games with the government and the opposition and the general public is disgraceful."
A NSW District Court jury delivered the guilty verdicts in July and Ward was placed in custody soon after.
Ward has filed a notice of intention to appeal against his conviction.
He launched a legal bid to cling to his seat, resulting in the vote to expel him from parliament being delayed.
But an injunction was dismissed by the NSW Court of Appeal on Thursday, paving the way for a parliamentary debate and his likely removal.
Ward was also rebuked for launching the legal bid without providing proper notice and ordered to pay costs when the court handed down its decision.
Four MPs have been expelled from NSW parliament for "unworthy conduct", the most recent from the upper house in 1969.
The resignation triggered a by-election for a yet-to-be-announced date.
Premier Chris Minns hinted Labor would run a candidate in Kiama, but the party's chance of success was another matter.
"We'd be complete mugs to expect that this is anything other than an incredibly difficult contest," he said.
"It'd be just so arrogant for us to roll into a seat that in 2019 the Liberal Party won on primaries, and in 2023 an independent won notwithstanding the fact that he was facing incredibly serious charges."
Ward won the Kiama seat as a Liberal in 2011, retaining it at multiple elections before leaving the party after charges were laid.
He won the seat again as an independent at the 2023 state election despite being suspended from parliament.
Katelin McInerney ran for Labor and ended with 49.2 per cent of the vote after preferences.
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