Simon Ramsay won’t recontest his seat at election

LIBERAL Member for Western Victoria Simon Ramsay announced this week that he will not contest November’s state election, following reports that he had been caught drink-driving in Barwon Heads at the weekend.

Mr Ramsay, who reportedly had a blood alcohol content of 0.19 per cent when stopped by police, met with Opposition Leader Matthew Guy on Tuesday and issued a statement soon afterwards, saying he was “deeply remorseful for my actions and apologise for my error of judgement”.

“I also regret any embarrassment and hurt caused to my family, friends, colleagues and the Liberal Party.”

He will not quit immediately, but will serve out the remaining three months of his term.

The Upper House MP contacted local media (but not this newspaper) at the weekend to reveal his offence. Despite saying he was “not hiding from anything”, Mr Ramsay declined to make further comment to this newspaper on Monday about his actions.

The MP said it “had been a great honour to represent the people of Western Victoria”, which includes the area stretching from the western edge of Melbourne to the South Australian border and as far north as Nhill and Wedderburn.

“Promoting and protecting our regional communities has been core to my effort,” he said.

“I want to thank my colleagues for their kindness during this difficult time and will continue in this term supporting the important work being done by Matthew and our parliamentary team.”

Mr Ramsay has been in Parliament since 2010 and was the first of five members elected (and the first Liberal) in the Western Victoria Region at the 2014 state election, receiving more than a third (36.56 per cent) of first preference votes.