ACT leader Rodney Hide says he is confident sacked deputy Heather Roy will stay in the party.

"I think there's every indication that she will stay on," Mr Hide said this afternoon.

But the ability of the pair to work together is in serious doubt after Mr Hide confirmed that a bust-up over a defence policy paper was a factor in her being rolled yesterday as deputy.

The fight, over Mrs Roy's claim that Mr Hide breached ministerial security by taking the paper from her office when she insisted he read it there, has exposed the depth of the rift between the two. Mrs Roy was Associate Defence Minister before she was removed as ACT deputy.

Mr Hide confirmed that Mrs Roy had lodged a complaint with Ministerial Services after he refused her demand to read the paper - which covered defence issues and was being prepared for Cabinet - in her office because there was nowhere for him to sit down.

''There was a paper prepared by Heather which I asked to see and she said that I could only see it in her office. I said ''well, that's silly'', and if I couldn't see it outside of her office, that would be ridiculous, and so I took it back to my office and then handed it back to her.''

He said Mrs Roy's complaint was rejected, and he considered it ''odd'' for her to have laid it.

An aide for Mrs Roy said she would not be making any comment today on her sacking.

Mr Hide would not say exactly what was in the paper, other than that it was a defence issue and was still before Cabinet. He said he had insisted on seeing it as he was entitled to know what Mrs Roy was saying or proposing in the party's name, though he said he had no problem with the substance of the paper.

''I have to defend what our MPs are up to and whether we're sticking to our policy line.''

He said ACT founder and MP Sir Roger Douglas - the only one of the party's other three MPs to vote for Mrs Roy to stay as deputy - was talking to her this afternoon in a bid to convince her to stay.

Mr Hide said she had given no indication she would leave the party, and he was sure she would remain an ACT MP.

''We've just had a caucus meeting, and Roger's gone off to see Heather, and I've expressed my hope and desire that Heather will have a good break and come back and work her way back as an excellent MP.

"We're feeling very positive towards her, and I wanted to make that plain because it was a tough day for her yesterday."



