Anne Tolley
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Anne Merrilyn Tolley (née Hicks, born 1 March 1953) is a New Zealand politician and former member of the
New Zealand House of Representatives The House of Representatives is the sole chamber of the New Zealand Parliament. The House passes Law of New Zealand, laws, provides Ministers of the New Zealand Government, ministers to form Cabinet of New Zealand, Cabinet, and supervises the ...
representing the National Party. She was New Zealand's first female Minister of Education from 2008 to 2011 and the first Minister for Children from 2016 to 2017. During the Fifth National Government, she was also Minister of Social Development,
Minister of Corrections The Minister of Corrections in New Zealand is the cabinet member appointed by the Prime Minister to be in charge of the Department of Corrections. The current Minister of Corrections is Kelvin Davis. Responsibilities The Minister of Correcti ...
, Minister of Police and Minister of Local Government. She served as Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives from 2017 to 2020. She is currently the Chair of the Commission overseeing the
Tauranga City Council Tauranga City Council is the local government authority for Tauranga City in New Zealand. It is a territorial authority elected to represent the 158,000 people of Tauranga. The last Mayor of Tauranga was Tenby Powell, who resigned in November 2 ...
, which was appointed after a review in 2020 identified significant governance problems within the Council.


Early life and family

Tolley was born in
Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...
on 1 March 1953, the daughter of Mary Margaret Hicks (née Norris) and her husband Ronald James Hicks. She was educated at Colenso High School (now William Colenso College) in Napier, and spent time as a Rotary exchange student in
Allentown, Pennsylvania Allentown (Pennsylvania Dutch language, Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Allenschteddel'', ''Allenschtadt'', or ''Ellsdaun'') is a city in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. The city has a population of 125,845 as of the 2020 United ...
, United States. She went on to gain a diploma in computer programming. In 1973 she married Allan Hunt Tolley, and the couple had three children. With her husband, Tolley ran a boutique hotel in Napier.


Local-body politics

In 1986 Tolley was elected as a member of the Napier City Council and remained in that role until 1995. She served as deputy mayor of Napier between 1989 and 1995, and was an elected member of the
Hawke's Bay Regional Council Hawke's Bay ( mi, Te Matau-a-Māui) is a Regions of New Zealand, local government region on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island. The region's name derives from Hawke Bay, which was named by Captain James Cook in honour of Admiral Edwar ...
from 1989 to 1992. She has been a
Justice of the Peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...
since 1989. While on Napier City Council, Tolley was involved in the establishment of a
local-authority trading enterprise A local authority trading enterprise (LATE) was an organisation established in New Zealand under the Local Government Act 1974. The 1989 legislation assigned regional councils planning and funding responsibilities, but not the transport supplier ...
to run Marineland and the Napier Aquarium, the Emerson Street redevelopment project, and the redevelopment of
McLean Park McLean Park is a sports ground in Napier, New Zealand. The two main sports played at the ground are cricket and rugby union. It is one of the largest cricket grounds in New Zealand. McLean Park is a sports ground of international standards w ...
. She sought re-election in the 1995 local elections, but was defeated.


Parliamentary career

An independent on the Napier City Council, Tolley was encouraged to join the Labour Party by incumbent Napier MP
Geoff Braybrooke Geoffrey Bernard Braybrooke (4 April 1935 – 9 March 2013) was a New Zealand politician. He was an MP from 1981 to 2002, representing the Labour Party. He was one of the party's more socially conservative MPs. Biography Early life and ...
but declined, instead joining the National Party. She was interested in being a candidate for National at the 1996 general election, but had not been a member of the party for long enough. She challenged Braybrooke for the Napier seat in
1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...
. While unsuccessful in that contest, Tolley was elected as a
list MP A list MP is a member of parliament (MP) elected from a party list rather than from by a geographical constituency. The place in Parliament is due to the number of votes that the party won, not to votes received by the MP personally. This occurs ...
. In the 2002 election, she unsuccessfully contested the Napier seat against Braybrooke's successor,
Russell Fairbrother Elwin Russell Fairbrother is a lawyer and former New Zealand politician. He was a Labour Party Member of Parliament from 2002 to 2008. Early years Fairbrother, who is commonly known by his middle name, was born into a truck driving family an ...
. Along with many other National MPs, Tolley did not escape the collapse of the party's vote that year, and so did not return to Parliament as a list MP. In the 2005 general election, Tolley successfully contested the
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electorate, including
Whakatāne Whakatāne ( , ) is the seat of the Bay of Plenty region in the North Island of New Zealand, east of Tauranga and north-east of Rotorua, at the mouth of the Whakatāne River. Whakatāne District is the encompassing territorial authority, whi ...
,
Ōhope Ōhope, until 1974 known as Ohope Beach, is a beach settlement in the eastern Bay of Plenty, on the northeast coast of the North Island of New Zealand, six kilometres east and over the hill, from Whakatāne. Name The New Zealand Ministry for Cu ...
,
Ōpōtiki Ōpōtiki (; from ''Ōpōtiki-Mai-Tawhiti'') is a small town in the eastern Bay of Plenty in the North Island of New Zealand. It houses the headquarters of the Ōpōtiki District Council and comes under the Bay of Plenty Regional Council. Ge ...
, and Gisborne districts, beating Labour candidate
Moana Mackey Moana Lynore Mackey (born 28 February 1974) is a New Zealand politician and has represented the New Zealand Labour Party in the New Zealand Parliament from 2003 until 2014. She has Māori, Irish, Scottish and Spanish ancestry. Early life a ...
, daughter of the previous East Coast MP
Janet Mackey Janet Elsdon Mackey (née Craig; born 14 June 1953) is a New Zealand politician. She was a Member of the New Zealand Parliament for the Labour Party from 1993 until 2005. Early life and family Mackey was born in Auckland on 14 June 1953, the ...
. She held the electorate for four subsequent elections until her retirement in 2020. She served as the first woman National Party
whip A whip is a tool or weapon designed to strike humans or other animals to exert control through pain compliance or fear of pain. They can also be used without inflicting pain, for audiovisual cues, such as in equestrianism. They are generally e ...
from December 2006 until February 2008 when she became the party's Education spokesperson.


Minister of Education: 2008–2011

The National Party formed a
government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...
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. The controversial proposals were opposed by many teachers and school principals, some of whom refused to implement the standards. In January 2010, Tolley's responsibilities for tertiary education were reassigned to
Steven Joyce Steven Leonard Joyce (born 7 April 1963) is a New Zealand former politician, who entered the New Zealand House of Representatives in 2008 as a member of the New Zealand National Party. In the same year he became Minister of Transport and Minis ...
, with Prime Minister
John Key Sir John Phillip Key (born 9 August 1961) is a New Zealand retired politician who served as the 38th prime minister of New Zealand, Prime Minister of New Zealand from 2008 to 2016 and as Leader of the New Zealand National Party from 2006 to ...
stating that this would allow Tolley to focus on the implementation of national standards. 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. 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. 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.
Hekia Parata Patricia Hekia Parata (born 1 November 1958) is a former New Zealand politician and former member of the New Zealand House of Representatives, having been elected to parliament in the 2008 general election as a member of the New Zealand Nationa ...
was made Education Minister while Tolley was demoted in the Cabinet rankings, becoming Minister of Corrections and Police, succeeding
Judith Collins Judith Anne Collins (born 24 February 1959) is a New Zealand politician who served as the Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the New Zealand National Party from 14 July 2020 to 25 November 2021. She was the second female Leader of the Natio ...
who was promoted to Minister of Justice.


Minister of Police and Minister of Corrections: 2011–2014

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. Later that year, the Government awarded a 25-year contract to Serco to build a 960-bed prison at
Wiri Wiri is a mostly industrial-commercial focused suburb in Auckland, New Zealand. It was formerly part of Manukau City until the merger of all of Auckland's councils into the ' super city' in 2010. The area was named after the chief Takaanini W ...
, South Auckland, at a cost of NZ$900 million. Tolley attended a sod-turning ceremony at the site of the new prison Wiri in September 2012. In June 2012, Tolley as Police Minister was responsible for crushing the first "
boy racer Boy racer is a term given to a young person who drives in a fast and aggressive manner; it has become a broader term (often pejorative) for participants in modern custom car culture who tune and modify cars with street racing-style afterma ...
" car under the Vehicle Confiscation and Seizure Act.


Minister of Social Development and Minister for Children: 2014–2017

When National was returned to government after the 2014 general election, Tolley succeeded
Paula Bennett Paula Lee Bennett (born 9 April 1969) is a New Zealand former politician who served as the 18th deputy prime minister of New Zealand between December 2016 and October 2017. She served as the deputy leader of the National Party from 2016 to 2020 ...
as Minister of Social Development. A key achievement during this term was reforming the
Child, Youth and Family Child, Youth and Family (CYF; in Māori language, Māori, ''Te Tari Awhina i te Tamaiti, te Rangatahi, tae atu ki te Whānau''), was the State sector organisations in New Zealand, government agency that had legal powers to intervene to protect an ...
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. 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.


Opposition and Deputy Speaker: 2017–2020

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. Along with former state services minister Paula Bennett, Tolley was accused by
New Zealand First New Zealand First ( mi, Aotearoa Tuatahi), commonly abbreviated to NZ First, is a nationalist and populist political party in New Zealand. The party formed in July 1993 following the resignation on 19 March 1993 of its leader and founder, Winst ...
party leader
Winston Peters Winston Raymond Peters (born 11 April 1945) is a New Zealand politician serving as the leader of New Zealand First since its foundation in 1993. Peters served as the 13th deputy prime minister of New Zealand from 1996 to 1998 and 2017 to 2020 ...
in 2017 of leaking information about his incorrectly filed superannuation application. Tolley admitted having told her sister of the situation before it was reported by media, but was not found to have alerted media. 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. She was succeeded as National's candidate for the East Coast electorate by
Rotorua District Council Rotorua Lakes District or Rotorua District is a territorial authority district in the North Island of New Zealand. It has one urban area of significant size, the city of Rotorua. The district is governed by Rotorua Lakes Council, which is headq ...
lor
Tania Tapsell Tania Tapsell (born 22 September 1992) is a New Zealand politician. She has served on the Rotorua Lakes District Council since 2013 and was elected mayor of Rotorua at the 2022 local elections. She is the first woman of Māori descent to hold ...
. However, in June 2020, with National polling poorly, Tolley announced that she would instead retire at the 2020 election. She gave her valedictory statement on 23 July 2020.


Post-parliamentary career

On 9 February 2021, the Minister of Local Government appointed a Crown Commission to oversee all of Tauranga City Council's governance responsibilities (with all existing elected members being discharged). Tolley was appointed Commission Chair.


Health

It emerged in 2010 that Tolley had undergone gastric bypass (stomach stapling) surgery in order to lose weight. Tolley joins other current and former New Zealand politicians including
Rahui Katene Rahui Reid Katene ( Hippolite, born 1954) is a New Zealand politician. She was elected to the 49th New Zealand Parliament at the 2008 New Zealand general election, 2008 general election representing the Māori Party in the seat of Te Tai Tonga, ...
,
David Lange David Russell Lange ( ; 4 August 1942 – 13 August 2005) was a New Zealand politician who served as the 32nd prime minister of New Zealand from 1984 to 1989. Lange was born and brought up in Otahuhu, the son of a medical doctor. He became ...
,
Chester Borrows Kerry James "Chester" Borrows (born 20 June 1957) is a National Party politician who served as a Member of the New Zealand Parliament (MP) from 2005 to 2017. Borrows worked as a police officer, including as a sole charge officer, and received ...
, Donna Awatere-Huata and
Tariana Turia Dame Tariana Turia (born 8 April 1944) is a New Zealand politician. She was first elected to Parliament in 1996. Turia gained considerable prominence during the foreshore and seabed controversy in 2004, and eventually broke with the Labour P ...
to have had gastric bypass surgery at some point in the past.


References


External links


Anne Tolley MP
official site * , - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Tolley, Anne 1953 births Living people New Zealand National Party MPs New Zealand education ministers Members of the Cabinet of New Zealand Members of the New Zealand House of Representatives Women government ministers of New Zealand New Zealand list MPs People from Napier, New Zealand Unsuccessful candidates in the 2002 New Zealand general election New Zealand MPs for North Island electorates Deputy mayors of places in New Zealand Napier City Councillors 21st-century New Zealand politicians 21st-century New Zealand women politicians Women members of the New Zealand House of Representatives Candidates in the 2017 New Zealand general election New Zealand justices of the peace People educated at William Colenso College