Invercargill MP Sarah Dowie is returning home today with her head held high, after receiving many messages of support after her heartfelt, strongly worded valedictory speech in Parliament on Wednesday.

Her speech focused on the cycle of abuse suffered by women and criticised the media for giving news space to the views of a “predator’’.

Ms Dowie also gave an emotional thank you to the people who have supported her since her “annus horribilis’’ [horrible year] began in January 2019.

“[The support] has been phenomenal to be honest,’’ Ms Dowie told the Southland App, just before boarding a plane in Wellington to return to Invercargill.

“Last night my phone was just blowing up left, right and centre, from numbers I didn’t even know.’’

She said one text came from former Prime Minister Jenny Shipley. She also received many messages of support through her Facebook page, with men and women saying they enjoyed her speech.

Ms Dowie said her supporters had seen her words as “powerful”, “vulnerable’’ and “raw’’ and they had agreed with her the media should be held to account for the way it reported abuse.

Ms Dowie said while she did not have to explain her situation, she had been asked to by people who wanted her to highlight abuse issues, including promoting a better understanding of “a whole spectrum of abuses’’, rather than abuse becoming a focus when someone died or was seriously physically injured.

Ms Dowie described her last night at Parliament as “a fantastic celebration with colleagues’’.

Ms Dowie retires at the September 2020 election but does not intend to ride off into the sunset just yet.

“I am an MP up until the election, so I am not off the clock yet,’’ she said.

When she gets home, Ms Dowie intends to spend time with her family and watch her young son play rugby in Dunedin this weekend.

“It will be a quiet couple of weeks for me before I get cranking on my business,’’ she said.

Ms Dowie has a law degree and a Bachelor of Science in ecology and during her two terms in Parliament, chaired the Justice Select Committee and the Education and Workforce Select Committee.

She intends launching a business consultancy advising clients on how to navigate legal, regulatory and environmental change and get their issues in front of Ministers of Parliament and government officials.

Whether she gets involved in a proposed Resource Management Act review depends on whether her clients want help in that space, she said.

Her work would involve analysing the advantages and disadvantages of change, writing submissions for clients, connecting Southland with Wellington and helping businesses “front foot’’ issues as they arise, she said.