Product Code Database
Sarah Maree Dowie (born 1974) is a New Zealand former politician of the National Party. She was the Member of Parliament for Invercargill from 2014 to 2020.
Dowie attended the University of Otago, studying law and ecology. After graduating, Dowie worked for the law firm Macalisters and later the Department of Conservation. Dowie joined the National Party and was affiliated with their "Blue Greens" environmentalist faction.
During her first term, Dowie served on a range of select committees. She was deputy chairperson of the Government Administration committee, deputy chairperson of the Local Government and Environment committee and chairperson of the Justice and Electoral committee.
In Dowie's second term, National was in Opposition. She was appointed to Simon Bridges' shadow cabinet as conservation spokesperson and one of only a few members who had not been a minister in the previous Government. In this role she campaigned against Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage's proposed tahr cull, supported recreational whitebaiting, and promoted a member's bill aimed at regulating the shark cage diving industry. She also opposed the Labour government's plans to merge the country's polytechnics into a single entity, Te Pūkenga – New Zealand Institute of Skills and Technology.
In 2019 Dowie was re-selected unopposed as National's Invercargill candidate, but in February 2020 announced her decision not to stand for re-election. Her change of heart was attributed to the fallout from the Ross scandal. Southern Institute of Technology chief executive Penny Simmonds was announced as the replacement candidate.
Dowie delivered her valedictory speech on 29 July 2020. She criticised the news media for the way it portrayed her when the news broke of her relationship with Ross and accused journalists and political commentators of inaccurate reporting and “downright lies”. She described Ross as a “predator” who was able to “manipulate the media for his agenda” and said when the “media is directly party to it, it is the media fraternity that needs to audit themselves as to their ethics and their conscious peddling of sexism and patriarchy”. Dowie said if it takes for her to be “New Zealand’s ‘scarlet woman’ to highlight that situation, “then so be it”, and that New Zealand has a long way to go with how it views women.
Her speech was met with a standing ovation by MPs throughout the debating chamber. Dowie gave a number of high-profile interviews with news media following the announcement of her retirement from Parliament, including with New Zealand Herald senior writer David Fisher, Stuff’s Andrea Vance, and Newsroom’s Melanie Reid. In these interviews she described Ross as psychologically, sexually and emotionally abusive and called for an overhaul of the way in which women MPs are treated.
Dowie also wrote an op-ed for Newsroom providing advice to other women caught in abusive relationships including breaking off contact with the abuser and reaching out to and confiding in friends.
In January 2021 she was announced as the chief executive of Able Charitable Trust, a mental health charity.
|
|
