May 26, 2026 — 5:47pmThe NSW government’s leader in the upper house, Penny Sharpe, has been suspended from parliament for a fortnight, an unprecedented expulsion that marks a dramatic escalation in the power struggle between the Minns government and the Legislative Council crossbench.Sharpe returned to parliament on Tuesday after serving a one-week suspension earlier in May. But just hours later, she was out again. The opposition – with crossbench MPs from the Greens and independents such as Mark Latham – voted to again hold Sharpe in contempt, and for an unprecedented two-week suspension.Penny Sharpe, the NSW government’s leader in the upper house, has been suspended from parliament for an unprecedented two weeks.Dominic LorrimerSharpe’s exile comes after the government’s refusal to produce documents relating to a decade-old allegation of sexual harassment against former NSW Labor general secretary Jamie Clements, which he denied. It is the fourth time she has been suspended over the matter.In August last year, Latham successfully passed a motion in parliament calling for documents held by the NSW Police and government regarding allegations made by a former Labor staffer Stefanie Jones against Clements, which allegedly occurred at parliament in the office of Campbelltown MP Greg Warren.Latham’s motion called for the government to release a statement Minns made to police at the time of the allegations.The government has refused to hand over the document, citing advice from the NSW Crown Solicitor that parliament cannot release it because it relates to “material touching on or concerning court proceedings and a police investigation”. On Tuesday, Sharpe agreed to table a redacted version of that advice, which she said was “strong and definitive”.The advice, seen by The Sydney Morning Herald, states there was “a quite strong relationship” between Minns’ statement and AVO proceedings taken against Clements in 2015.But the opposition and crossbench remained unsatisfied. After reviewing the advice, on Tuesday afternoon the majority of MPs supported a motion by Latham to remove Sharpe.“This is a weak, flimsy advice the government has been relying on,” Latham said.“There’s nothing definitive about it, nothing strong about it.”The motion came in the context of a long-running feud between Minns and Latham, but it is also part of a larger rebellion against the government over what opposition and crossbench MPs see as decisions by the government aimed at hobbling its power as the house of review.In a sign of the extent of the revolt, NSW Labor’s deputy leader in the upper house, John Graham, may also face suspension later in the week over the government’s refusal to release a report by NSW Supreme Court Justice John Sackar, KC, into criminal law hate speech protections.The government argues the Sackar report is a confidential cabinet document. It has refused to comply with attempts by parliament and through freedom of information to release it.Sharpe and Graham have been targeted because of their leadership positions, not because they are directly responsible for decisions over the documents.Relations between the government and the upper house have deteriorated significantly over the past several months.The Herald has previously detailed how the upper house lost its power to compel witnesses to attend committee meetings – a crucial transparency tool – after the Minns’ chief of staff, James Cullen, successfully filed court action testing whether staffers could be punished for not attending inquiries. The case is now subject to a High Court appeal.But non-government MPs in the Legislative Council are also fighting Labor over its refusal to release some documents through parliament under the Standing Order 52 provision. The Clements documents and the Sackar report were refused under that provision.In retaliation, upper house MPs have inserted so-called poison pill amendments into government bills. On Tuesday Minns labelled the upper house MPs a “cabal”.“There’s a bit of a cabal in the Legislative Council holding up over 20 bills that the government’s proposed, everything from hate speech laws all the way to e-bike regulations … all of it’s being held up by a combination of the Greens, Mark Latham, and the Coalition,” he said.Before her suspension, Sharpe noted 11 bills had passed through the Legislative Council so far this year compared to 86 in 2025 and 96 in 2024. She accused the opposition of “interfering with government business”.“At what point does this actually stop?” she said.The suspension comes as Sharpe manages the fallout from the destruction of an Aboriginal heritage site during the construction of a renewable energy zone in the state’s central west.ACEREZ, the renewables operator responsible for building the Central-West Orana Renewable Energy Zone, destroyed an Aboriginal rock shelter while clearing an access track on private property.“We are deeply sorry. We apologise without reservation to the Traditional Owners and to the local community. The loss of this rock shelter is permanent and nothing we say can undo that,” chief executive Steve Masters said.Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.From our partners