The parliamentary career of South Australian Upper House MP Bernard Finnigan hangs in the balance after he was found guilty on one child pornography charge, more than four years after he was first arrested.
The Legislative Council is expected to consider his fate when it sits next week but Attorney-General John Rau has already called for him to go.
Mr Rau said the matter was now in the hands of the council but he believed most South Australians would expect that the disgraced MP would lose his seat.
He said it would be better if the former Labor minister just quit, sentiments echoed by the Liberal Opposition.
"I think it would clearly be in the interests of the community if he did decide just to leave voluntarily," Mr Rau said.
In a statement after the District Court verdict on Tuesday, Finnigan said he would absent himself from further parliamentary sittings while he considered the judgment and whether to appeal.
In his verdict, Judge Steven Millsteed found the MP guilty on one count of accessing child pornography and not guilty on one count of attempting to access child pornography.
The charges related to internet search terms Finnigan used and websites he visited using two laptop computers.
But Judge Millsteed agreed with a defence application to delay recording a conviction until the 42-year-old was sentenced.
Had he recorded an immediate conviction, it is understood Finnigan's expulsion from parliament would have been automatic.
Judge Millsteed said he was satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that Finnigan used internet search terms with the intention of obtaining access to child pornography.
He said Finnigan would also have known that by clicking on the websites, images would be transmitted to his screen for viewing.
"He merely had to close the covering window or windows to see them," the judge said.
"A person who arranges for a parcel of pornographic magazines to be delivered to his front door does not have to unwrap the parcel to know that is what it contains."
Finnigan was industrial relations minister in the state Labor government when he was arrested in 2011 and has continued to sit in state parliament as an independent.
If he loses his seat he will be replaced by someone nominated by the Labor Party.
