Christopher John Downy (born 29 March 1955) is a former

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

n politician. He was the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

member for

Sutherland Sutherland ( gd, Cataibh) is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area in the Highlands of Scotland. Its county town is Dornoch. Sutherland borders Caithness and Moray Firth to the east, Ross-shire and Cromartyshire (later ...

in the

New South Wales Legislative Assembly The New South Wales Legislative Assembly is the lower of the two houses of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The upper house is the New South Wales Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament Ho ...

from 1988 to 1997, and Minister for Sport, Recreation and Racing from 1993 to 1995. Downy was the eldest son of Gerald and Marie Downy. He was educated at Saint Patrick’s Christian Brothers College Sutherland. He attended the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...

, where he received his

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

(Hons), and

Sydney Teachers College The Sydney Teachers' College was a tertiary education institution that trained school teachers in Sydney, Australia, Sydney, Australia. It existed from 1906 until the end of 1981, when it became the Sydney Institute of Education, a part of the ne ...

, where he received a

Diploma of Education The Diploma of Education, often abbreviated to DipEd or GradDipEd, is a postgraduate qualification offered in many Commonwealth countries including Australia, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. Overview The diploma can build on the ...

. He was subsequently a secondary school teacher. He joined the

in 1974 and was active in local politics. In 1980 Downy was the Liberal candidate for the safe federal

Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

seat of

Hughes Hughes may refer to: People * Hughes (surname) * Hughes (given name) Places Antarctica * Hughes Range (Antarctica), Ross Dependency * Mount Hughes, Oates Land * Hughes Basin, Oates Land * Hughes Bay, Graham Land * Hughes Bluff, Victoria La ...

; he was unsuccessful. Downy was elected to

Sutherland Shire Council Sutherland Shire is a local government area in the southern region of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Sutherland Shire comprises an area of and as at the had an estimated population of . Sutherland Shire is colloquially kn ...

in 1983, and in 1988 was selected as the Liberal candidate for the state seat of

. The seat replaced the abolished

Woronora Woronora is a suburb in southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Woronora is located 27 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the Sutherland Shire. Woronora Heights is a ...

, and was contested by that seat's Labor member

Maurie Keane Maurice Francis "Maurie" Keane (21 September 1923 – 12 October 2014) was an Australian politician. He was the Labor member for Woronora in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1973 to 1988. Born in Croydon Park in Sydney to Maur ...

, but Downy narrowly defeated him to win the seat. Downy was appointed Minister for Sport, Recreation and Racing in 1993, but lost that position when Labor won office in 1995. He resigned his seat in 1997, prompting a

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

that was won by Liberal candidate

Lorna Stone Lorna June Stone, (born 25 June 1938), is a former Australian politician. She was the Liberal Party member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly for Sutherland from 1997 to 1999. Stone was born Lorna Nicholson to parents Alfred and Erla. ...

. In 2012 Downy was elected state president of the NSW Liberal Party, succeeding

Arthur Sinodinos Arthur Sinodinos (born 25 February 1957) is an Australian diplomat and former Liberal Party politician who has been Ambassador to the United States since February 2020. He served as Chief of Staff to Prime Minister John Howard from 1997 to 200 ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Downy, Chris 1955 births Living people Liberal Party of Australia members of the Parliament of New South Wales Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly