Kiama MP Gareth Ward has resigned in disgrace at the last minute to avoid becoming the first NSW Member of the Legislative Assembly to be punted from Parliament due to misconduct since 1917 and only the fifth politician in the state’s history to be expelled.

Ward informed the Speaker for the Lower House, Greg Piper, at 9.08am on Friday that he would be resigning.

Leader of the Lower House Ron Hoenig was due to put forward a motion to expel the convicted rapist as the first order of business for Friday’s parliamentary agenda later in the morning.

This means there will be a by-election in the Kiama electorate in the coming months, likely in early October.

Ward was also ordered to pay the legal costs for the injunction lawsuit that he brought about against the NSW Government this week which was dismissed by the Court of Appeal on Thursday.

He remains in custody in jail in the Hunter after being found guilty late last month of four sexual assault offences.

Ward had ignored ongoing calls from NSW Premier Chris Minns and Opposition Leader Mark Speakman to resign and there has been widespread anger in the general public over the fact that he has continued to receive his parliamentary salary while in prison.

His only public comment since his conviction was a statement released last Friday in which he said he has “provided instructions to my legal team to prepare an appeal at the earliest opportunity”.

He was charged by police three years ago after complaints against Ward from a man, aged 24 at the time, over an incident at Potts Point in Sydney’s east a decade ago.

Ward was also found guilty of indecently assaulting a recently turned 18-year-old at the politician’s Meroo Meadow home in 2013.

Piper told Parliament that Ward's resignation took effect immediately and it was accepted by the Lower House without any objections.

Hoenig said that it was regrettable that the Lower House had been forced into a position where it had to expel a member for the first time in more than a century.

"The fact that we were about to make such a determination is a pretty shameful exercise and should have been done following the verdict by the jury," he told Parliament.

"Because of the failure of the former member for Kiama to respect the verdict of the jury that convicted him for serious sexual offences, it demonstrated not only lack of respect to the jury of his peers, this House and the traditions of this House, but to the people of Kiama who had entrusted them to be able to properly represent them.

"The people of Kiama put their trust in the former member for Kiama, knowing that he was charged with these offences. And they trusted his assertions of his innocence. They gave him the presumption of innocence.

"The people of Kiama, I thought, were extraordinary in entrusting him to represent them in a way in which he could do so with integrity, honesty and propriety.

"And the verdict of the jury has ensured that whatever assertions he made to the people of Kiama to enable him to be elected was certainly dishonest and he certainly took them for a ride.

"And the electorate of Kiama should themselves be extremely disappointed in his continuing conduct."

Hoenig paid tribute to the victims of his crime for their bravery in "what they have had to undergo not only through his conduct but through the trial process".

"It is regretful that this House has been put through this difficulty. However, better late than never," he added, saying that Ward only resigned because he knew "full well what almost the unanimous decision of this House was going to be had he not tendered his resignation".

Opposition Leader Mark Speakman said Ward's resignation was long overdue.

"He can exercise his appeal rights, he can protest his innocence if that's what he wants to do, but his constituents come first," he said.

"It is just beyond comprehension, the shamelessness that has occurred in the last fortnight.

"And what the member for Kiama has done in the last couple of weeks, playing games with his constituents, playing games with the House, playing games with the Government and the Opposition and the general public, is disgraceful.

"Gareth Ward has done what he should have done long ago, but it should never have come to this.

"The people of Kiama have been left without a voice for too long, and taxpayers have been forced to foot the bill while this circus dragged on.

"Public office is a privilege, not a personal fiefdom, and when that trust is broken the right thing is to go immediately.

"This is about respect for Kiama and the people of NSW and that respect should have been shown from day one."

The most recent NSW MP who was expelled from Parliament for conduct "unworthy of a member of parliament and seriously reflecting on the dignity of the House" was Richard Atkinson Price 108 years ago.

Price was given his marching orders after a Royal Commission found that he had made baseless allegations in the Assembly regarding improper conduct against Minister for Forests William Ashford.

The Irish-born Member for Gloucester was expelled in October 1917 but was subsequently re-elected at the by-election for his seat the following month.

Alexander Ewan Armstrong was expelled from the NSW Legislative Council in 1969 for giving evidence in court proceedings that he would consider bribing a judge and procuring false evidence in a divorce trial.

In similar circumstances to the Ward case, he unsuccessfully challenged the validity of the House’s actions in the NSW Court of Appeal.