Matthew 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]

Matthew Doocey

MP
Member of the New Zealand Parliament
for Waimakariri
Assumed office
20 September 2014
Preceded byKate Wilkinson
Personal details
Born1972 (age 47–48)
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 40 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–present 52nd Waimakariri 29 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]

Doocey left his job in June 2014 to focus on the Waimakariri election campaign.[9] He beat Labour's 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 third Whip of the National Government.

For the 52nd New Zealand Parliament, Doocey serves as National's Junior Whip, working closely with the Party's Senior Whip.[13] He was also appointed Spokesperson for Mental Health and is National's Associate Spokesperson for Health, and a member of the Health Select Committee.[14]

As National’s first ever Spokesperson for Mental Health, in 2018, Matt 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. Matt 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. On 28 August 2019, Sir John Kirwan launched the Mental Health and Addictions Wellbeing cross-party group, with the executive consisting of Matt Doocey, Louisa Wall (Labour), Chloe Swarbrick (Green Party), Jenny Marcroft (NZ First) and David Seymour (ACT), to work together to improve mental health and wellbeing in New Zealand.

Previous life

Born and bred in Canterbury, New Zealand, Doocey worked in mental health and health-care 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.

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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 27 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. "New Whips to help keep National moving forward". National Party – press release. 21 March 2018. Retrieved 15 February 2019.
  14. "Health- New Zealand Parliament".
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