NSW Opposition Leader Mark Speakman has announced the Liberals will contest the Kiama by-election.

Despite concerns over the impact of their lengthy association with disgraced former MP Gareth Ward, the Liberals opened nominations on Monday.

The NSW Government is going through the process of sorting out a date for the by-election, which could be held as early as mid-September.

Ward resigned in disgrace on Friday morning less than an hour before NSW Parliament was due to remove him from office due to "unworthy conduct".

He was first elected to the Kiama seat in 2011 but resigned from the Liberals more than three years ago after it was revealed that he was the subject of a criminal investigation.

Ward was re-elected despite the charges hanging over his head in 2023 but was recently found guilty of four counts of sexual assault and is in jail in the Hunter Valley awaiting sentencing on 19 September.

The Liberal Party issued a statement to announce its intention to put forward a candidate for the Kiama by-election.

"The Liberal Party has contested every by-election in this Parliamentary term, because we believe in giving the people of NSW a voice.

"A voice to hold the Labor Government to account on their failure to address the cost of living crisis that has been crushing household budgets and sending small businesses to the wall at record rates.

"This Labor Government has failed the Kiama community and NSW, with the infrastructure pipeline dried up, longer waits for essential services like healthcare, and a lack of focus on things that matter to residents like local roads."

After nominations have been received, the Party's state conference for the Kiama electorate will vote on their preferred candidate.

Melanie Gibbons received just 12% of the primary vote at the last election and it is understood that she is highly unlikely to throw her hat into the ring again.

The Nationals appear certain to also nominate a candidate, which could split the conservative vote, while Katelin McInerney, who narrowly lost to Ward two years ago, is the frontrunner to be Labor's nominee again.

Nationals MLC Wes Fang, who is the Deputy Opposition Whip, appears certain to be parachuted into the Kiama electorate as their candidate.

Former NSW Minister for Primary Industries Katrina Hodgkinson, who made a short-lived comeback to politics earlier this year when she nominated for the Nationals in the federal seat of Whitlam before withdrawing from the race, told ABC Illawarra on Monday morning that she would not be putting her hand up for the Kiama vacancy.

“After 18 and a half years in State Parliament, that is extremely unlikely. You can almost effectively rule it out,” she said.

Hodgkinson said the Kiama electorate deserved a fresh start after the "awful" end to the Ward era.

“For me personally, I can’t speak on behalf of everybody else but I’m just a little bit embarrassed to have somebody representing our constituency who is a convicted felon. It’s awful," she said.

“If it was me in his shoes - it never would be, as soon as I was accused I would have stepped down and I’m very upset that he did that to his constituency and continued to deny it and then was ultimately found guilty.

“It should have happened long ago. It was hard to believe that he hung on for that long after that guilty verdict.

“I just feel so sorry for the victims and everything they’ve been through and I’m sure most people do. It must have been an absolutely torrid time. They’ve really done an extraordinary job for sticking it out.

“If the Court finds you guilty, you are going to jail. You can’t support your constituency."