Matt Doocey

Matthew Maurice Doocey (born 1972)[1] is a New Zealand politician who was elected to the New Zealand Parliament at the 2014 general election as a representative of the New Zealand National Party. He was re-elected in 2017 with a majority increase of over 10,000 which was a significant increase from a majority of 2,500 in 2014. It was reported that this was the largest personal vote increase in the country.[2]

Matt Doocey
MP
Senior Whip of the National Party
In office
10 November 2020 – 7 December 2021
DeputyMaureen Pugh
LeaderJudith Collins
Christopher Luxon
Preceded byBarbara Kuriger
Succeeded byChris Penk
Member of the New Zealand Parliament
for Waimakariri
Assumed office
20 September 2014
Preceded byKate Wilkinson
Personal details
Born1972 (age 50–51)
Canterbury, New Zealand
Children2

Personal life

Doocey is a member of the well-known Carter family. Family patriarch Maurice Carter, a Christchurch City Councillor for over 30 years (1956–1989), was his grandfather, and the former Speaker of the House of Representatives, David Carter, is his uncle.[3] Doocey grew up in Christchurch and attended St Bede's College for his secondary schooling. The Dooceys bought their current home in Rangiora, which currently falls into the Waimakariri electorate, in April 2014 after boundary changes put his former Redwood home out of the electorate.[4]

Political career
New Zealand Parliament
Years Term Electorate List Party
2014–2017 51st Waimakariri 56 National
2017–2020 52nd Waimakariri 29 National
2020–2023 53rd Waimakariri 31 National
2023–present 54th Waimakariri 8 National

Doocey stood in the 2013 Christchurch East by-election placing second behind Poto Williams. At the time, Doocey was a manager for the Canterbury District Health Board.[5] The party's Canterbury Westland Regional Chair, Roger Bridge, noted that a sitting government has never won a by-election in an electorate that it did not already hold.[6] Bridge later conceded that it would be "very, very hard for us to win".[7] When Kate Wilkinson, National MP for the Waimakariri electorate, announced in early November 2013 that she would retire at the end of the term of the 50th Parliament, rumours immediately surfaced that Doocey is going to replace her as the candidate in the Waimakariri electorate, and the Christchurch East by-election was for him to gain experience in contesting an election.[3][8]

In government, 2014–2017

Doocey left his job in June 2014 to focus on the Waimakariri election campaign.[9] He beat the Labour Party's candidate Clayton Cosgrove with an increased majority compared to the 2011 election.[10][11]

For the 51st New Zealand Parliament Doocey was appointed Deputy Chair of the Social Services Select Committee.[12] In 2016 he brought a cross-party delegation of the Social Services Select Committee to Canterbury to hear from service providers about their response to communities’ psycho-social recovery needs in post-earthquake Canterbury. Also in his first term, Doocey was appointed the third Whip of the National Government.

During the 2017 general election, Doocey retained his seat in Waimakariri by a margin of 10,766 votes.[13]

In opposition, 2017–present

For the 52nd New Zealand Parliament, Doocey served as National's Junior Whip, working closely with the Party's Senior Whip.[14] He was also appointed Spokesperson for Mental Health and is National's Associate Spokesperson for Health, and a member of the Health Select Committee.[15]

As National's first Spokesperson for Mental Health, in 2018, Doocey wrote to every political party in Parliament to invite them to join a cross-party approach to mental health that would focus on developing solutions and policy over a longer period than the Parliamentary three-year term. Doocey believed that by initiating a bipartisan approach to mental health this would break down some of the barriers to progress to improve mental health outcomes in New Zealand. However, Labour and the Greens rejected National's offer for a cross-party approach to mental health.[16][17]

On 28 August 2019, John Kirwan launched the Mental Health and Addictions Wellbeing cross-party group, with the executive consisting of Matt Doocey, Louisa Wall (Labour), Chlöe Swarbrick (Green Party), Jenny Marcroft (New Zealand First) and David Seymour (ACT), to work together to improve mental health and wellbeing in New Zealand.[18]

During the 2020 general election, Doocey retained Waimakariri for the National Party by a final margin of 1,507 votes.[19] Following the election, the National caucus elected him as its Senior Whip on 10 November.[20] He served in this role until December 2021, when he joined the National Party front bench under the new leader Christopher Luxon.[21]

Previous life

Born and bred in Canterbury, New Zealand, Doocey worked in mental health and healthcare management in both New Zealand and the UK. He studied Counselling Psychology at Weltech, has a BSc (Hons) in Social Policy, an MA in Healthcare Management from Kingston University in London and an MSc in Global Politics from Birkbeck, University of London.

References
  1. "Waimakariri Newsletter, Winter 2015" 15 June 2015 (Retrieved 18 February 2018)
  2. Commission, New Zealand Electoral. "E9 Statistics – Electorate Status". www.electionresults.govt.nz. Retrieved 4 April 2018.
  3. Conway, Glenn (8 November 2013). "Wilkinson to fall on her sword". The Press. p. A7.
  4. "Chch East candidate: Matthew Doocey". The Press. 16 November 2013. Retrieved 30 November 2013.
  5. "National's Christchurch East candidate named". The Press. 12 September 2013. p. A3. Archived from the original on 23 October 2013. Retrieved 13 September 2013.
  6. "National opens nominations for Christchurch East By-election". New Zealand National Party. Archived from the original on 23 October 2013. Retrieved 13 September 2013.
  7. "'Realistic' Nats reject by-election hopes". The Press. 23 October 2013. p. A9.
  8. Conway, Glenn (8 November 2013). "Canterbury MP Kate Wilkinson quits". The Press. Retrieved 9 November 2013.
  9. Cooper, Emily (8 September 2014). "Cosgrove fights to win back Waimakariri". 3 News. Retrieved 20 September 2014.
  10. "Official Count Results – Waimakariri". Electoral Commission. 10 December 2011. Retrieved 27 September 2014.
  11. "Official Count Results – Waimakariri". Electoral Commission. 21 September 2014. Retrieved 27 September 2014.
  12. "Matt Doocey". New Zealand Parliament. 15 May 2020. Retrieved 18 July 2020.
  13. "Waimakariri – Official Result". Electoral Commission. Archived from the original on 17 January 2020. Retrieved 3 November 2020.
  14. "New Whips to help keep National moving forward". National Party – press release. 21 March 2018. Retrieved 15 February 2019.
  15. "Health – New Zealand Parliament". www.parliament.nz.
  16. Doocey, Matt (18 July 2018). "National pushing for faster action on mental health". New Zealand National Party. Scoop. Archived from the original on 16 September 2020. Retrieved 3 November 2020.
  17. Bennett, Lucy (4 October 2018). "National disappointed by rejection of cross-party work on mental health". The New Zealand Herald. Archived from the original on 3 November 2020. Retrieved 3 November 2020.
  18. Walters, Laura (29 August 2019). "Cross-party mental health group a reason for hope". Newsroom. Retrieved 3 November 2020.
  19. "Waimakariri – Official Result". Electoral Commission. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
  20. McCulloch, Craig; Scotcher, Katie (10 November 2020). "Shane Reti becomes new deputy leader of the National Party". RNZ. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
  21. Cooke, Henry (7 December 2021). "National elects Chris Penk senior whip, Maureen Pugh to keep junior role". Stuff. Retrieved 7 December 2021.
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