Anne Tolley

The National Party formed a government after the 2008 general election and Tolley was appointed Minister of Education, the first woman to hold that position. The key policy introduced during her term was introduction of the National Standards programme that measured children's progress against the curriculum in reading, writing and mathematics, in order to increase schools' accountability.[7] The controversial proposals were opposed by many teachers and school principals, some of whom refused to implement the standards.[8] In January 2010, Tolley's responsibilities for tertiary education were reassigned to Steven Joyce, with Prime Minister John Key stating that this would allow Tolley to "concentrate on the successful implementation of... national standards."[9]

In June 2010, Tolley expressed concerns about a Parliamentary Library research paper that was critical of National Standards, calling it "unprofessional", "highly political" and so biased it could have been written by the union opposing the policy. Such papers are required by the Parliamentary Library to be politically neutral.[10] A month later the New Zealand Principals Federation voted to support regional associations which boycotted training for National Standards. Tolley reminded principals that in her view it would be quicker and give better results to contact herself or the Ministry of Education with concerns about the changes, than to speak through the media.[11]

The stand-off between Tolley and teachers was embarrassing for the Government and resulted in Cabinet changes after National was re-elected in November 2011.[12] Hekia Parata was made Education Minister while Tolley was demoted in the Cabinet rankings, becoming Minister of Corrections and Police,[13] succeeding Judith Collins who was promoted to Minister of Justice.[14]

In March 2012, one of her first major announcements as the Minister of Corrections was the proposed closure of the old prisons in Wellington and New Plymouth. She also said that a number of older units at Arohata, Rolleston, Rangipo and Waikeria prisons would close.[15] Later that year, the Government awarded a 25-year contract to Serco to build a 960-bed prison at Wiri, South Auckland, at a cost of NZ$900 million.[16][17] Tolley attended a sod-turning ceremony at the site of the new prison Wiri in September 2012.[18]

In June 2012, Tolley as Police Minister was responsible for crushing the first "boy racer" car under the Vehicle Confiscation and Seizure Act.[19]

When National was returned to government after the 2014 general election, Tolley succeeded Paula Bennett as Minister of Social Development. A key achievement during this term was reforming the Child, Youth and Family service within the Ministry of Social Development into a standalone agency, Oranga Tamariki, the Ministry for Children, after a Children's Commissioner report in 2015 found that the government had failed children in state care.[20]

From September to December 2016, Tolley had an additional appointment as Minister for Youth. On 20 December 2016 she became the Minister for Children and the Minister of Local Government and held these roles, along with Minister of Social Development, until the Government was defeated at the 2017 general election.[21]

Tolley was appointed Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives in November 2017. In this role, she chaired a cross-party steering group steering group to develop a parliamentary code of conduct, as an outcome of an independent review into bullying and harassment in the parliamentary workplace.[22]

Along with former state services minister Paula Bennett, Tolley was accused by New Zealand First party leader Winston Peters in 2017 of leaking information about his incorrectly filed superannuation application.[23] Tolley admitted having told her sister of the situation before it was reported by media, but was not found to have alerted media.[24]

At the end of 2019, Tolley declared her intention to run as a list-only candidate in the 2020 general election in hope of being able to be appointed Speaker of the House if National were able to form a government.[25] She was succeeded as National's candidate for the East Coast electorate by Rotorua District Councillor Tania Tapsell.[26] However, in June 2020, with National polling poorly,[27] Tolley announced that she would instead retire at the 2020 election.[28] She gave her valedictory statement on 23 July 2020.[29][30]