Kiama MP Gareth Ward has resigned from NSW Parliament from behind bars just moments before members were set to vote on the first motion of expulsion in 107 years.

The 44-year-old will lose his taxpayer-funded salary, and a by-election will be held in Kiama to elect his replacement.

Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, Greg Piper, confirmed he received a resignation letter from Ward effective immediately about 9.08am today.

“Before we proceed with the program as printed, I wish to advise the House that this day, Friday, the 8th of August 2025, I received a letter from Gareth James Ward resigning his seat as a member for the electoral district of Kiama,” Piper told the house.

“I further inform the House that I intend to issue a writ for a by-election to be held on a date to be determined.”

Leader of the House Ron Hoenig moved that the seat of Kiama be declared vacant, and unanimous ayes were echoed throughout the chamber.

Premier Chris Minns told reporters outside parliament that the resignation was “three or four days too late” after Ward lost his last-minute legal challenge against the motion of his expulsion.

“We believe this resignation should have come earlier,” he said.

“The circumstances relating to it meant that a lot of time, effort and energy was spent in the NSW Supreme Court proving what most people who live in this state would have known instinctively, and that is that if you’re convicted of some of the most serious charges, sexual assault in NSW, you can’t sit as a serving member of parliament drawing a parliamentary salary.

“How can you represent your community from behind bars in Cessnock? How can you do constituent interviews?

“The government and the parliament needed to make a decision to protect the integrity of the Legislative Assembly, we’ve done just that.”

Minns confirmed he would pursue an order for Ward to pay the government’s legal costs.

Ward has held the Kiama electorate since 2011, winning three elections under the Liberal banner before securing the 2023 poll as an independent.

He was convicted in July of four sex offences relating to incidents against two young men in 2013 and 2015.

He still has time to lodge an appeal.

Ward is currently awaiting sentencing for sexually assaulting an intoxicated political staffer after a midweek event in the state’s parliament in 2015.

The long-standing former member would still be able to run again at the upcoming by-election if he chose to do so.

Minns confirmed Labor would put up a candidate for Kiama, but acknowledged that it would be an “incredibly difficult contest”.

His government had led a motion to expel Ward from parliament earlier this week, with support from his former colleagues in the Liberal Party.

The vote was delayed after Ward’s lawyers won an injunction in the Supreme Court.

Ward’s lawyers tried to argue that his convictions were not enough to expel him from parliament under “unworthy behaviour” provisions.

The court rejected those claims and allowed parliament to continue with their motion.

The house was set to vote this morning, moments before Ward resigned from his seat of Kiama. 

Hoenig said this would have been the first time in 107 years that NSW Parliament was set to expel a sitting member.

“The fact that we were about to make such a determination is a pretty shameful exercise, and should have been done following the verdict by the jury,” he said.

“Because the failure of the former member for Kiama to respect the verdict of the jury who convicted him for serious sexual offences demonstrated not only lack of respect to the jury of his peers, this house and the traditions of this house, but to the people of Kiama who had entrusted them to be able to properly represent them.”