Social media suppressed after Gareth Ward found guilty of rape
A deafening silence has descended on the Kiama region's usually loud and crowded social media spaces following Friday's jury verdict finding Gareth Ward guilty of three counts of indecent assault and one count of rape.
by Cat Holloway /
Gareth Ward was well known for frequent insulting attacks online against those who disagreed with him, so Ward's recent deleting of his social media pages is an irony not lost on many.
"This man called me a 'waste of space' on social media before blocking me. Now who's the 'waste of space', Gareth?" wrote one commenter in the Shoalhaven News Facebook group to a post of Friday's ABC story on Ward's guilty verdict.
"Watch out, he might sue you from jail," responded another before comments on the post were turned off.
Kate Dezarnaulds, a business owner, community advocate and independent Gilmore candidate in this year's federal election, considers the hushing of community voices a "disturbing" sign that people are frightened of "legal mechanisms" that may be deployed to quash free speech and prolong Ward's fingertip hold on this seat.
Kiama farmer, writer and health and education consultant, Lynne Strong, called on the Kiama community to "reckon with the truth, about what happened and about how we responded" as acknowledgment of the "delay, scrutiny and silence" that the victim-complainants endured.
Other Kiama community members who collaborated with Ward, during his successful career since 2011 as Member for Kiama, are struggling to reconcile the MPs strong representation for his constituents alongside his "nasty side" and arrogant "use of parliamentary privilege to twist the truth".
In May 2021, Ward confirmed he was the subject of a police investigation, stepped down as NSW Minister for Families, left the Liberal Party and moved to the cross bench.
In March 2022, Ward was suspended from parliament, rendering him unable to speak or vote in any House proceedings despite retaining his Member for Kiama job.
Ward was narrowly re-elected in March 2023 as an Independent, despite a swing against him of more than 10%.
The Guardian's Michael McGowan reported on that election race:
"And so here we are, in perhaps the strangest election contest in the state, where a man who could face jail time is running for re-election to a parliament that – for the time being at least – he is not welcome in.
Yet on Thursday night it seems no one wants to talk about the elephant in the room. Neither of his rivals mention the fact that Ward is facing charges, his suspension from the parliament, or the absence of the Liberal party from a forum in a seat it notionally holds."
Although Ward resumed normal parliamentary duties after his re-election, Premier Chris Minns banned members of his government from directly answering questions posed by Gareth Ward.
From June 2023, the Premier refused to answer any oral questions from Gareth Ward during Question Time, instead requiring all Ward’s inquiries to be submitted in writing “on notice”.
Spark Shoalhaven sought comment from Kiama community identities about how the region has felt and functioned in the four years since investigations into Ward began and the three years since Ward was charged.
Most opted not to share any public opinion.
But Kate Dezarnaulds was among the willing as she sees that reticence to speak out reflected in a lack of "civic discussion" in the wake of Ward's serious convictions.
"In the last 24 hours, I’ve observed the same pattern across more than 20 community Facebook groups in our region: first, comments being turned off, then entire posts being deleted — even when those posts simply link to ABC coverage," said Dezarnaulds, a sexual assault survivor herself who was driven to enter politics by Ward's attempts to silence her public statements about him.
"I’ve personally been threatened with defamation twice by Gareth Ward for expressing views that are, in fact, protected political speech.
"Now that he’s been found guilty by a jury of serious criminal offences, what has changed is clear: the facts are no longer alleged—they are legally established findings of guilt."
Dezarnaulds posted a "test" to the Kiama & Neighbouring Districts Community Page on Facebook which was quickly liked by 50 readers and commented on supportively, but also criticised, especially by a colleague of Gareth Ward, as "political point-scoring".
Dezarnaulds' post remained online overnight - comments were turned off when Dezarnaulds was unavailable to monitor them. But page managers soon deleted the entire post.
According to one large Kiama community group administrator who acknowledged the pressure on Facebook managers, no-one externally warned or directed the Facebook group to sensor their online forum.
But a decision was made, from within, to allow post-by-post moderation to avoid the most vicious "vigilante" comments including general homophobia and threats of violence against Ward, even death threats.
Dezarnaulds believes a chronic fear of defamation, and possibly aggressive legal threats to even mild commentary on the Ward case, have led to the “delete first" approach.
"Let’s remember, this man was re-elected in 2023 while under criminal charge, thanks in part to a chilling effect on public discourse.
"When posts vanish, victims’ stories and allies' support vanish too.
"The court has spoken. Our communities should be allowed to discuss it."
Dezarnaulds, a Regional Heroes 2025 finalist and designer of the Investing in Rural Community Futures program for communities recovering from the bushfire crisis, counts social media communication as a modern-day "public square" that is increasingly vulnerable to overreach by legal threats, self-censorship by group moderators and algorithmic bias that suppresses sensitive news.
"What’s fallen over the region is a vacuum of silence on what is a seismic, unprecedented political event.
"That should disturb all of us."
"Ward's Trump-style playbook of silencing dissent through legal intimidation has no place in Australian public life.
"Community members must be able to speak openly, factually, and without fear. That isn’t just our right—it’s the foundation of a functioning democracy."
Lynne Strong said that damage to Kiama from Gareth Ward's criminal case was not just legal and reputational, but cultural.
"One of the most disturbing things about the past few years has been watching people decouple personal loyalty from moral accountability," Strong said.
"It’s as if once they picked a side, they couldn’t or wouldn’t look again, no matter what came to light.
"We’ve seen it globally, we’ve seen it nationally, and we’ve seen it in Kiama.
"It’s not just denial, it’s something more insidious - a refusal to re-evaluate in the face of uncomfortable truths.
"That’s what makes the courage of survivors even more extraordinary. Coming forward is hard enough without a community that looks away."
One Facebook response on Dezarnauld's test post raised the potential for social media discussion to jeopardise achieving a court outcome.
"I think the issue here isn't about Mr Ward, it's about legal process. This is what most people don't understand."
"It would be a terrible shame to have that legal process collapse with an instruction of bias, implied or real.
"So while people have very strong opinions about it, and of course they SHOULD - protecting the process so that justice is truly served is the best action.
"Let's be outraged but let's not hurt the judicial process."
But an equally valid reply said:
"I hope now that the process is complete...there will be some more robust discussion about our elected representatives and community values."
The future of the NSW seat of Kiama remains uncertain, leaving an already reeling community wondering if their narrowly elected MP will resign, be disqualified, suspended or expelled.
When and how Kiama moves forward rests on whether or not Gareth Ward will appeal the guilty verdict to avoid being incarcerated and dig his heels in to resist losing his parliamentary position.
Local watchers predict a Kiama by-election within a few months.
As one anonymous opinion stated:
"If Gareth Ward wants to prove to Kiama that he truly has this community's best interests at heart, he'll resign."
Threats to both privacy and free speech are real and serious. But are we too paranoid?
For constitution-nerds, a detailed explanation of NSW law behind calls for Gareth Ward to resign and how that is affected by the likelihood that he will appeal his convictions.
(Note: Additions to the original version of this article were made to clarify Gareth Ward's parliamentary participation since 2021.)
