Either she goes or I go.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
That’s the ultimatum NSW Labor leader Luke Foley has delivered to his party after calling for the resignation of embattled Wollongong MP Noreen Hay.
On Sunday, Mr Foley called for Ms Hay to resign from her party position as Opposition Whip.
This call came just 12 days after she was reinstated when she was advised she was not a suspect in an Australian Federal Police investigation into electoral fraud.
Ms Hay has refused to resign, saying she has done nothing wrong.
Mr Foley is expected to put the matter of Ms Hay’s position to a Labor caucus vote on Thursday.
If the caucus voted to keep Ms Hay, Mr Foley said “I'd resign the leadership, frankly".
"The harsh truth is that the buck stops with us who are elected by the people," Mr Foley told ABC radio.
"Our staff sit in electorate offices that ultimately are funded out of the public purse.
"We can't be held accountable for the private activities away from the workplace but where activities that involve the employee's own line of work end up before the courts ... members of parliament will be held to account by the public."
Mr Foley called for her resignation after one of her staff members was charged over allegations of electoral fraud.
However, Ms Hay is standing firm, stating there were “no allegations or charges against me”.
“I've refused [to resign] on the basis that the ordinary person out there in my electorate and in the community (who) gets a coffee and sits down to read the paper would assume that if I resigned, I must have done something wrong," she told ABC radio.
Ms Hay has been stood down three times before – twice in 2008 and again in July 2015
South Coast Labour Council secretary Arthur Rorris, who ran against Ms Hay at the last election, declined to be drawn into the issue.
“It’s well known that I ran on an anti-corruption platform,” Mr Rorris said.
“All these things are on the record, I don’t have anything further to add.”
