UPDATE, 4PM: Member for Western Victoria Simon Ramsay has been asked by opposition leader Matthew Guy to consider his future after he was charged with high-level drink driving on the weekend.
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Mr Guy told a media conference this afternoon he he had given Mr Ramsay up to 48 hours to consider whether he would stand at the next state election in November, only 17 weeks away.
Mr Guy said he was “angry, disappointed and frustrated” that Mr Ramsay had been charged with driving with an alcohol reading of 0.19.
He said he had a number of conversations with Mr Ramsay since the Geelong-based MP rang him on Sunday to offer his resignation as the opposition’s spokesman for agriculture following his charge.
“I asked him to reflect upon his future beyond the 2018 election,” Mr Guy said.
He said he wanted to receive Mr Ramsay’s response to his request in a face-to-face conversation.
Mr Guy said there was no excuse for drink driving and he expected the charge against Mr Ramsay left not only him angry, but all those Victorians who had to deal with road trauma.
He said Mr Ramsay “should face every bit of penalty that can be thrown at him” if he was convicted.
The western Victorian MP had been preselected for another four-year term in state parliament.
EARLIER: Victorian opposition leader Matthew Guy is expected to make a statement later today after Upper House Member for Western Victoria Simon Ramsay was charged with drink driving on the weekend.
Media reports have said Mr Ramsay gave his resignation as the opposition spokesman for agriculture to Mr Guy on the weekend following his charge.
Mr Ramsay blew a reading of 0.19 per cent, almost four times over the legal limit, shortly after being intercepted by police in Barwon Heads late on Saturday night.
"I'm not hiding from anything. I feel like an idiot,” Mr Ramsay told the Geelong Advertiser.
“I'm really gutted that I did such a thing and the actions are inexcusable. The consequences will haunt me forever," Mr Ramsay told the newspaper.
Mr Ramsay was elected as a Liberal Upper House Member for the Western Victoria in 2010.
He was previously a president of the Victoria Farmers Federation.
His electorate office is in Geelong but his province extends throughout western Victoria.