A former Labor minister says David O'Byrne has no chance of retaining leadership of the party after admitting to sexual harassment of a former female employee.
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Mr O'Byrne sat silently in Parliament on Thursday stripped of his leadership, while a complaint against him is investigated, and his portfolio responsibilities.
His Labor colleagues were also quiet with no media appearances during the day and calls left unanswered.
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The party is investigating a complaint from a member that Mr O'Byrne sent crude messages of a sexual nature to her and kissed her twice without consent when she was a junior employee at the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union between 2006 and 2007.
This was when he was head of the union.
According to the ABC, the complainant asked for the contact to stop after which she was hauled into a meeting and given a verbal warning about her work performance.
Mr O'Byrne made a statement before media on Wednesday and he apologised to the woman, stating he believed kiss and the text message exchanges were consensual.
Before Parliament, Greens leader Cassy O'Connor said Mr O'Byrne's leadership was untenable.
"Given that Mr O'Byrne has effectively confessed to sexually harassing this person, we don't believe his position is tenable," she said.
"We need to make sure in this Parliament that we are sending the right message into the community and the right message to women about the culture that we have in this building."
Former Labor minister Julian Amos in his regular newsletter said Mr O'Byrne had no chance of retaining his leadership.
"If he doesn't resign, the national executive will have no option but to step in and take appropriate action," Dr Amos said.
"The obvious alignment would be for Rebecca White to return to the leadership with Shane Broad as her deputy. But for that to happen she would first have to want it.
"No doubt there will be some very serious discussions being held behind closed doors over the next few days." Dr Broad did not return calls for comment on the leadership situation.
It is believed that Labor MHA Ella Haddad was aware of the woman's complaint against Mr O'Byrne.
In a statement, she said:
"The Labor Party has a complaints policy in place to deal with issues like this.
"It is strictly confidential and I intend to adhere to that confidentiality in respect of both parties - which is the right and proper thing to do.
"The politicisation of complaints such as this, is one of the factors that can in fact deter women from coming forward."
Greens' justice spokeswoman Rosalie Woodruff in Parliament cast doubt over the authenticity of Mr O'Byrne's public apology to his complainant.
She said it was hard to reconcile with the comment Mr O'Byrne made which praised the woman for having the strength to bring this issue to light when he had engaged lawyers to fight against publication of the story.
"His first response was to deny the reality of what the complainant had said."
Dr Woodruff said Mr O'Byrne had failed to apologise for the abuse of power over the young employee, and rather had apologised for not recognising the contact was not consensual.
"It was not consensual because it could not be consensual," she said.
"There cannot be consent in that situation."
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Political reporter for Australian Community Media, based in Hobart.
Political reporter for Australian Community Media, based in Hobart.
