MD4Senate
Dr Meredith Doig is the Australian Sex Party's lead candidate in Victoria for the Federal Senate. This is her background --
Starting off as a maths teacher at Mordialloc-Chelsea High School and Dandenong Tech, Meredith Doig took the plunge into the private sector and spent most of her career as a corporate executive in manufacturing, mining and banking. For the last 15 years she’s been a professional company director on commercial, government and education boards, including the Port of Melbourne, Melbourne University and Bakers Delight Holdings.
Meredith was one of Australia’s first Equal Opportunity officers, and later co-authored the Women’s Electoral Lobby’s policy paper on Affirmative Action. She has advised on executive remuneration, senior team effectiveness, and governance. She has been a facilitator of the Company Directors Course for the Australian Institute of Company Directors and for 10 years was a moderator with the Cranlana Programme on Ethics and the Good Society.
“My experience in business and on boards means I have a pretty good understanding of how they work. This is important if you want to remain independent of vested interests.”
While pursuing a career in the corporate world, Meredith has always remained a community activist. She was on the national board of WEL (the Women’s Electoral Lobby), lobbying on topics ranging from tax reform and industry development to social equity and corporate governance. For the past five years, she has been President of the Rationalist Society of Australia.
“I’ve always been a joiner – I tend to throw myself into causes and try to make a difference rather than complain on the sidelines.”
So why the Sex Party?
“To me, it makes sense – common sense. The Sex Party is unashamedly about socially progressive policies, but at the same time, it’s about less government interference with people’s lives. We’re for more freedom – responsible freedom – and smaller government rather than more and more bureaucracy.”
Meredith is particularly keen to see government decision-making based more on science and evidence rather than ideological biases.
“Take climate change, for example. The evidence is in – there’s no doubt it’s happening. For any government to give credibility to climate change deniers is simply irresponsible. At the same time, we’d be interested in exploring the role of nuclear in a clean energy future. We don’t know whether it would make sense for Australia but we wouldn’t rule it out from some ideological preconception.”
Aside from her professional and activist work, Meredith was also Australia’s first Chief Motorcycle Instructor and advised the Federal Government on motorcycle safety in the 1990s.
“I got my first bike the day after my 18th birthday and I’ve been riding ever since – though these days I must admit I’m a bit of a fair weather rider. It may be high risk but it’s also high reward!”
Meredith now rides a BMW 650GS and has completed five overseas motorcycle trips.
