Anne Tolley

The Honourable Anne Tolley MP
44th Minister of Education
In office 19 November 2008 – 25 November 2011
Prime Minister	John Key
Preceded by	Chris Carter
Succeeded by	Hekia Parata
Minister for Tertiary Education
In office 19 November 2008 – 27 January 2010[1]
Prime Minister	John Key
Preceded by	Pete Hodgson
Succeeded by	Steven Joyce
Member of the New Zealand Parliament for National Party list
In office 1999–2002
Member of the New Zealand Parliament for East Coast
Incumbent
Assumed office 2005
Preceded by	Janet Mackey
Majority	6,413
Personal details
Born	(1953-03-01) 1 March 1953 (age 59) Napier,  New Zealand
Nationality	New Zealand
Political party	National Party
Occupation	Hotelier, Local Government
Website	http://www.annetolley.co.nz/ annetolley.co.nz

Anne Merrilyn Tolley (born 1 March 1953 in Napier, New Zealand) serves as a politician representing the New Zealand National Party. With the formation of the Fifth National Government in late 2008, she became the Minister of Education, the first woman ever to assume the role.

Early years

Before entering national politics, Tolley served as Deputy Mayor of Napier and a City Councillor. Tolley and her husband Allan maintain several homes in Gisborne as well as properties in Whakatane and Wellington.

Parliamentary career

Tolley represents the East Coast electorate, including Whakatane, Ohope, Opotiki, and Gisborne districts. She acted as the first woman National Party Whip from December 2006 until February 2008 when she became the party's Education Spokeswoman after Katherine Rich stood down from the shadow portfolio.

She was first an MP from 1999 to 2002, representing the National Party. She was elected in the 1999 elections as a list MP, having unsuccessfully contested the Napier seat against Labour's Geoff Braybrooke. In the 2002 elections, she unsuccessfully contested Napier against Braybrooke's successor, Russell Fairbrother. 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 she successfully contested the East Coast Electorate, beating Labour Candidate Moana Mackey, daughter of the previous East Coast MP Janet Mackey. Tolley also beat the Deputy Leader of the United Future Party, who stood in the electorate for the fifth time.

Labour Party politicians criticised Tolley in 2009 after an expensive helicopter flight, paid for by the state, to "get an understanding of Auckland's tertiary institutions".^[2]

In June 2010 Anne Tolley became upset at a paper published by the Parliamentary Library research paper critical of National Standards. She labeled it as "unprofessional", "highly political" and so biased it could have been written by the union opposing the policy.^[3]

After National was re-elected to power in November 2011, Prime Minister John Key reshuffled his cabinet team boosting the role of female politicians on the National party front bench.^[4] Ms Hekia Parata was made Education Minister while Ms Tolley was demoted in the party hierarchy becoming Minister of Corrections and Police.^[5] She took over the role from Judith Collins who moved up the rankings to become Minister of Justice - filling the vacancy created by the retirement of Simon Power from parliament.^[6]

Soon after her removal from the Education portfolio, Ms Tolley was accused by Labour politicians of misleading the public over what she knew about a former school principal, Deborah Anne Mutu, who had been suspended for covering up inappropriate behaviour by her husband who was also a teacher at the same school. Mrs Mutu was subsequently appointed as an expert adviser to the Ministry of Education.^[7]

Personal

It emerged in 2010 that Tolley had undergone gastric bypass (stomach stapling) surgery in order to lose weight.^[8] Tolley joins other current and former New Zealand politicians including Rahui Katene, David Lange, Chester Borrows, Donna Awatere-Huata and Tariana Turia to have had gastric bypass surgery at some point in the past.

References

External links

• Anne Tolley MP official site
• Profile at National party
• Profile at New Zealand Parliament
• Releases and speeches at Beehive.govt.nz
• Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou.co.nz