Cape York Indigenous leader Noel Pearson says it should be up to the people of the Cook electorate to decide if Billy Gordon should leave Parliament, and not the Queensland Premier.

Mr Gordon quit the Labor Party on Monday after Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced on Sunday she would expel him.

Ms Palaszczuk's move came after Mr Gordon revealed an extensive criminal history and allegations emerged that he had bashed his ex-partner.

Mr Pearson said the rules of the Labor party and Mr Gordon's election to Parliament were separate issues.

"It's not up to the Premier or the Speaker or the Opposition to demand his resignation from Parliament," he told Lateline.

"He has obviously fallen foul of the rules of the Labor Party in respect of disclosure of his personal history and so on. That's a matter for the Labor Party.

"But the question as to whether he's entitled to remain, as elected by the people of Cape York, is up to the electors of Cape York at the next poll."

Mr Pearson said Mr Gordon had been treated unfairly by the Labor Party.

"Billy Gordon's recent election was the subject of great enthusiasm amongst people in the Cape and in the Torres Strait," he said.

"I feel that [the Labor Party] have thrown him under a very brutal bus, and I don't think that he's been afforded all of the natural justice that he should've been afforded."

Mr Gordon has not yet revealed whether he will quit Parliament, which would spark a by-election in his seat.