Western Australia's newest politician has been expelled from his party less than a month after taking his seat in parliament, over 42 alleged breaches of family violence restraining orders.
Ben Dawkins was last month chosen as the replacement for veteran Labor MP Alannah MacTiernan after she brought her almost three-decade career in politics to an end.
He was suspended from the party late last year after being charged with dozens of counts of breaching a family violence restraining order (FVRO), which related to communications with his former partner beyond the allowed topics of finances and visiting his children.
Mr Dawkins had pleaded guilty to all 42 charges but has since been attempting to change those pleas to not guilty.
On the same day the community lawyer was sworn into parliament last month, WA Labor announced its disputes committee had recommended he be expelled from the party.
The final decision on that recommendation rested with the party's state executive, which last night agreed to expel Mr Dawkins.
"In February 2023, in light of Mr Dawkins pleading guilty to numerous counts of breaching a family violence restraining order, I brought a charge against him under the WA Labor Rules, asking that he be expelled from the Party," Labor state secretary Ellie Whiteaker said in a statement.
"The WA Labor Disputes Committee considered the matter and recommended Mr Dawkins be expelled from the WA Labor Party — a recommendation supported by the Party's Administrative Committee.
"Last night, the WA Labor State Executive endorsed the recommendation to expel Mr Benjamin Dawkins from the WA Labor Party.
"The expulsion is effective immediately."
McGowan says Dawkins 'dealt with'
Premier Mark McGowan said he supported Mr Dawkins being expelled and hoped the party could now move on.
"He was elected by accident really, but he's in court for some pretty serious matters and he actually pleaded guilty to them, so we've dealt with the matter now," he told reporters this morning.
When asked if he supported Mr Dawkins being suspended or expelled from parliament, the premier said that would likely have to wait until after the court case had concluded.
"Someone's been elected to the parliament. To suspend them or expel them is a pretty serious thing," he said.
"It happens rarely. Just depending on the circumstances, the parliament can take those steps if required."
When approached for comment by the ABC, Mr Dawkins provided a scathing 446-word response to his expulsion, criticising various members of WA Labor.
His strongest language was reserved for senior party figures, who he said were "executing" him to try and make themselves look good.
"They also chose to execute people who have not been found, in my case, to have committed any kind of violence, physical or other," he said.
Mr Dawkins also defended the allegations made against him in court.
"The so-called breaches of the FVRO were me emailing about kids and property, which I am allowed to do, no threats, no violence of any kind," he said.
Dawkins to stay on crossbench
Mr Dawkins is already sitting in state parliament as an independent, but his expulsion means he will almost certainly remain on the crossbench for the rest of his two-year term.
Even without Mr Dawkins in its ranks, Labor maintains a healthy majority in the Legislative Council where he sits, and the move will not impact the government's control of both houses of parliament.
Mr Dawkins was the fifth person on Labor's ticket for the South West electorate at the 2021 state poll.
Mr McGowan has previously said that made Mr Dawkins's election an "unfortunate circumstance", because Labor usually only gets two seats in the South West electorate.
"At the last state election, unusually, we ended up with three which was a high watermark, if you like," he said last month.
"Ordinarily you only get two, so number five is very unusual circumstances for someone at that position to get elected.
"Now in the time since the election in 2021, these issues about court appearances and so forth have come to light, they didn't exist when he was pre-selected."
WA's electoral laws mean when Ms MacTiernan retired, her replacement was chosen by a recount of votes from the 2021 election rather than a by-election.
The next person in line, Bunbury sign-writer John Mondy, decided not to take up the seat, meaning it fell to Mr Dawkins.
Last year Mr Dawkins tried to sue the Labor party after it failed to pre-select him in the seat of Forrest for the federal election, but the case was dismissed by WA's Supreme Court.
