Ross ready to return ‘without bitterness’
Former National MP Jami-Lee Ross says he is ready to return to Parliament without any sense of bitterness or revenge against party leader Simon Bridges or deputy Paula Bennett.
But the explosive events of last year are far from settled.
The MP said a text he received from a former lover, a National MP, saying he deserved to die was now the subject of a police investigation.
And his future tenure in Parliament is far from certain.
In a lengthy statement released last night, Ross revealed he had contemplated suicide at the end of the explosive week in October in which he was expelled from the National Party on the grounds of disloyalty.
After being found, Ross was sectioned to Middlemore Hospital for psychiatric assessment and released a day later.
Ross last night likened his attitude to bitterness to that of South African politician Nelson Mandela after being released from prison after 27 years.
“I am reminded at this time of a famous Mandela quote from his time leaving prison on Robben Island: ‘As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn’t leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I’d still be in prison.’
“I am still the same person that has been proud to work hard for Howick and Botany . . . But I can admit, last year, I didn’t get everything right. I am sorry. I will do better.”
Ross’ psychiatrist wrote to Parliament’s Speaker, Trevor Mallard, last week saying Ross was fit to return to work, Newshub reported.
Parliament resumes on February 12 but how long Ross will be there is not yet certain. Under legislation passed last year, National has the power to declare his Botany seat vacant and to force a byelection.
Bridges has said the party would not do that while Ross was unwell, but he has not definitively ruled it out.
Ross said he wants to continue being the MP for Botany.
“As well as returning to being the best MP I can be for my community, I also need to be a better husband and father,” the MP said.
“In those dark moments when I felt there was no hope and no way forward — when my world had crashed down around me so much that I found myself . . . thinking I had no option but to end everyone’s pain — it was the vivid picture in my head of 3-year-old Charlotte’s little happy face that stopped me from actually going through with doing something dumb,” Ross said.
“No amount of political pointscoring is worth hurting other people, or crushing the happy face of my little girl. We all got into politics to try to make the world a better place for the boys and girls of the future. In October we forgot that.”
Ross said he had not initiated the complaint to police about the text he received from his former lover but he was co-operating with the inquiry.
The text was sent by the woman MP as part an angry diatribe to Ross well before the events of that week in October when Ross was named as the likely leaker of Bridges’ expenses, he was expelled from National, he released secretly recorded conversations with Bridges and made a complaint to the police about the party leader.
The woman is understood to be one of four unnamed women who spoke to Newsroom about their relationship with Ross.