Bad men problem: Gareth Ward and Mark Latham leave NSW parliament in unchartered territory | New South Wales politics

The New South Wales Parliament has a problem with men’s bad behavior. But more importantly, it seems to be unable to cope with it.

On Tuesday, the parliament will try to cope with two different situations that share a common result: as an institution, it will damage its reputation.

Gareth Ward

Although he is a convicted rapist in custody waiting for a penalty, Kiama Deputy Gareth Ward continues to be a member of the Legislative Assembly and receives a basic salary of NSW taxpayers more than $ 170,000.

The Labor Party plans to take a action to expel it when the parliament continued on Tuesday, and the opposition said it would support it.

The ward, especially the government will probably lead to more cases, because especially the government will probably try to call a choice on the southern coast after a short time.

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But first he takes a little back.

Most of the politicians who have been investigated or faced with criminal charges prefer to resign, or their parties put pressure on a line under the political career of the deputy.

However, Ward forced it and continues to demand his innocence, although he was convicted of serious sex crimes against two young men. He was suspended in 2022 after being accused of the crime and left the Liberal Party. He then ran independently in the 2023 state elections and was returned by Kiama voters.

Now he has been sentenced to a potential sentence for more than five years.

In accordance with the 13A department of the NSW Constitution, one person is not appropriate to become a deputy if they are convicted of a crime that can be punished for five years or more.

However, only when the person reaches the end of the appeal process and his conviction is overthrown, he is considered as a conviction. Anne Twomey and Ward have confirmed that she plans to appeal against the decision. The appeal process can take years.

The other route is deportation. The NSW Constitution does not give a specific power to expel a member, but Twomey says that the NSW Parliament is a natural force to remove a deputy to protect himself and his appropriate functioning.

This is the place where Prime Minister Chris Minns is headed – but it is relatively unspecified.

The courts have decided that deportation should not be punished, but it can be done to maintain the trust of the people in the integrity of the parliament.

If the Ward is thrown, a choice is required to change it, which only contributes to complications. Will Ward take a precautionary measure to prevent the election while appealing deportation and criminal conviction?

Conceptly, there are several cases to guide the road – in 1917, when a deputy was last thrown out of NSW sub -house.

But what is certain is that the cases seem inevitable unless Ward voluntarily resigned. The first stop will be the Supreme Court and then a possible high court appeal.

For those who want a deeper diving, Twomey’s Podcast, Council Clarion, He is investigating all the bending and turns that may occur in the coming weeks.

Mark Latham

Mark Latham, a controversial independent upper home member, is also under the microscope, but for completely different reasons.

The former One Nation deputy is under investigation on the general standard of behavior in which the Privilege in the Chamber and the Labor Party was called late.

Has the Minns government suddenly found a new moral accuracy? Or is Premier motivated with more basic political thoughts? Latham works with the opposition and Crossbench to prevent changes in the government’s favorite workers’ compensation legislation.

In Parliament, Minns called him independent MP Alex Greenwich as one of the most embarrassing bigotry of NSW olan, a “strange twitter account” he deployed for a “disgusting homophobic attack”.

Recently, evidence of Latham’s personal life has entered the public property due to a relationship collapse that adds fuel to anger fire.

These are the subjects of a case seeking a violent violence that he violently objected. As the relationship is degenerated, allegations received from court applications, including leaked texts about female MPs and other unpleasant purchases, have found public property ways.

Latham’s behavior raises questions whether respect and respect for parliament and women’s deputies is suitable in any workplace.

It was claimed that Latham secretly photographed his female colleagues and shared the images with humiliating comments. If it is true, in another workplace, at least this will be a quick consultancy, a warning, or possibly dismissal.

Then he uses Latham’s privilege of parliament. There is a privilege to allow politicians to speak freely without fear of slander, but Latham is controversial.

Before the committees, witnesses are a blunt, a useful questioning at the border.

In 2024, he used a privilege to attack his enemies such as a $ 140,000 slander agreement against Latham and Rosie Batty, a domestic violence campaignist.

Last month, Latham angry his colleagues by talking about Greenwich’s medical records, which was produced as part of a separate case against Greenwich’s NSW Civilian and Administrative Court by Greenwich.

But can the upper house actually fulfill a punishment or convince Latham to change his behavior? The answer is probably no.

The worker plans to activate two movements that began on Tuesday during the next sitting period: one is about a certain violation of privileges and the other is about more general censorship.

The worker will claim that Latham has violated the privilege of some documents related to Karen WebB, Latham’s former police commissioner, and that there are investigations about the gin gifts produced on the basis of parliamentarians.

The Labor Party wants Latham to apply to the Committee of privileges because he violated the order.

The emergence of medical records is likely to embrace secret photographs and perhaps a censorship movement that condemns the behavior of other actions.

But when it comes to meaningful results, do not hold your breath.

The Committee of privileges may propose an apology or perhaps an suspension, but that is rare.

The worker lost control of this powerful committee after a dispute about Crossbench and the opposition a month ago. They came together to cut a worker member, so that the seven -member committee control came out of Labour’s hand.

What about censorship? While enjoying the bad fame and interest that this last epic will bring, Latham will be slightly more than a slap on the wrist.

The problem for the NSW parliament is that the appropriate behavior standards and the application rules are desperately outdated, their processes are archaic, and Liz Broderick does not apply most of the suggestions of a report completed two years ago.

The Federal Parliament took action to establish a standard commission with real teeth to finish parliamentarians for bad behaviors outside the room. It will still be tested but a start.

Instead, in NSW, we will spend weeks for emergency crises that will further reduce the stance of parliament in the eyes of the people, without dealing with the real cultural change problem.