The NSW Greens will vote at the State Delegates Council this weekend on whether to remove upper house member Jeremy Buckingham as a candidate for the March state election.
The motion calls for Buckingham to be immediately removed from the party's upper house ticket.
"To remove Jeremy Buckingham from the Greens NSW legislative council ticket, pending completed results of an investigation into any/all harassment allegations," the motion reads.
To pass, it needs 75% support from the delegates.
The motion, written by a member of the Macarthur branch, says it aims to show the party's "commitment to dealing with the allegations" made against Buckingham and to "protect the reputation of the Greens NSW as a progressive feminist organisation".
The move to disendorse Buckingham comes after the ABC aired an investigation into the Greens' handling of an alleged sexual harassment complaint against him.
One woman alleged to the ABC that Jeremy Buckingham grabbed her inappropriately in 2011.
Buckingham strenuously denies the allegation and the complaint is still being investigated by the NSW Greens. He claims the delay in finalising the investigation is part of an "ongoing factional attack".
The motion says Buckingham can only be restored as a Greens candidate if the investigation is complete and the allegations are cleared before the writs for the March 23 state election are issued.
If passed Dawn Walker – the NSW Greens spokesperson for Aboriginal Affairs, Disability, TAFE, Health, Regional Arts, Tourism, Forestry and Koalas – will be moved into the third position on the ticket.
The ABC investigation prompted federal Greens leader Richard Di Natale to issue a formal apology, and sparked hundreds of people to sign a petition demanding the party "reshape its culture around sexism". Dozens have resigned from the party.
Greens sources told BuzzFeed News they expect the motion to pass.
"The number of people prepared to defend his alleged behaviour is shrinking," a source told BuzzFeed News.
Outgoing federal Greens senator Lee Rhiannon said that given the “incredibly serious nature of the allegations”, Buckingham “must immediately at least stand aside while the investigation is completed”.
“It is clear from [the] program that our processes have failed these women,” she wrote on Facebook, referring to the ABC's investigation, which looked at a number of complaints, including the one against Buckingham.
“We must never put personal or political ambition ahead of the welfare of our members and staff.”
In a joint statement issued last week the federal and NSW Greens admitted it “has not always had processes in place that support” a safe working environment.
“We acknowledge that the Greens NSW made mistakes in handling complaints which were dealt with under the processes recently put in place, causing distress to the women involved,” it said.
“We are working collaboratively to review and strengthen our process. To women who have felt let down by the process, we apologise.”
UPDATE
“This just confirms that these allegations are being publicised and used for factional politics,” Buckingham told BuzzFeed News. “The Greens should not be overturning a democratic preselection based on media reports of false allegations.
“The correct and fair process to assess allegations of this nature is through a confidential, independent investigation. I have cooperated fully with the investigation and I am confident the allegations will not be upheld because they are false.
“I am confident that fair-minded Greens members will respect basic principles of justice, such as the presumption of innocence and procedural fairness, and will wait until the findings of the independent investigation are available before considering and taking action on such proposals.”