Roy's return catches party off guard

Heather Roy fronts up to the media on her surprise return to Parliament yesterday. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Demoted Act MP Heather Roy caught everyone off guard - her own colleagues included - when she returned to Parliament unexpectedly in an apparent act of defiance.

Mrs Roy had been on leave to consider her future after being dumped last week as deputy leader and resigning her ministerial portfolios.

Her resignation was surrounded by controversy over the leaking of a dossier she had prepared to defend herself in the fateful meeting.

Party members, including John Boscawen, who deposed her as deputy, said they were not aware of her plans to return early.

After her appearance, Act leader Rodney Hide said he was not ready to put the events of last week behind him.

"The next step is for Heather to front up to caucus and the board concerning the developments of the last week," Mr Hide said last night.

By late last night, the pair still had not spoken.

Mrs Roy had been given two weeks' leave from last Tuesday. The return appeared to be promoted by comments Mr Hide made on Tuesday suggesting that she should be reconsidering whether she could return.

Mrs Roy walked to the House just before 2pm accompanied by her only ally in the five-person caucus, party founder Sir Roger Douglas, and her husband, Duncan Roy.

She answered all questions put to her by the media including those about her friendship with former ministerial adviser Simon Ewing-Jarvie.

"We've been family friends for many years, our boys went to school together, we campaigned for Act together, we've worked on defence issues together."

But what will make her return to the caucus more difficult is that she stood by the dossier yesterday.

It described Mr Hide as a bully who had set out to discredit her and get her dumped as Associate Defence Minister.

"There's nothing in there [the document] that I understand to be untrue," she said. She added, however, that she had been "mortified" at its leaking by Dr Ewing-Jarvie.

Last night on Close Up, she said she and Mr Hide had discussed the bully issue. "We have agreed that we can put this behind us and move forward."

She said she supported Mr Hide as leader and Mr Boscawen as deputy.

Asked why she had made an early return, she said: "I'd had enough of gardening. I want to be back here ... and there are projects that I want to get on with now and do."

Defence Minister Wayne Mapp said he had concerns about the inappropriate language in two defence papers, but he had no issues with Mrs Roy as his associate minister, nor with Dr Ewing-Jarvie.

He said that a month ago, Mr Hide told him about a rumour that Dr Ewing-Jarvie used drugs. "It was hearsay but once I had heard it I had to pass that to Ministerial Services".

Dr Mapp said the fact that Dr Ewing-Jarvie had failed to gain a security clearance did not mean he had been accessing sensitive documents.

Dr Ewing-Jarvie has said the drug claim relates to his distribution of the party pill BZP at an Act function before it was outlawed. He had not used it since.

- ADDITIONAL REPORTING: NZPA