James Hayward (politician)

Hayward was born in Derby, Western Australia. He attended Riverton Primary School and Willetton Senior High School in Perth.[2]

He married in October 2002. He has three sons and three daughters.[2]

He worked as a television journalist in the Pilbara region of Western Australia for GWN7, and for Channel 7 Perth. He joined the National Party of Australia (WA) in 2012.[3]

In 2013, he was elected to Bunbury City Council, serving until 2021.[2] He served as state president of the National Party from 2015 to 2019,[4] and as the federal vice president of the National Party of Australia.[2] At the 2021 Western Australian state election, Hayward was elected to the Western Australian Legislative Council as a member for South West.[5]

He was the shadow minister for Local Government, Water, and Regional Cities.[2]

On 2 December 2021, Western Australia Police charged Hayward with alleged child sexual abuse of an eight-year-old girl earlier in 2021. He was charged with three counts of indecent dealings with a child under 13 years, one count of procuring a child under 13 years to do an indecent act and one count of persistent sexual conduct.[6][7][3] Later the same day, he was suspended by the Nationals WA. The following day, he resigned from the party.[8]

In February 2022, Hayward revealed he will not resign from parliament, saying that if he resigned, "it would send a message that any person in public office can be removed by simply making an untested allegation."[9][10]