Q&A: Anne Tolley, National MP for East Coast

Anne Tolley

What does a junior whip in Parliament do?

It's more of an administrative job. You make sure people are at their select committees; you manage the House. The junior and senior whips share the House duties, so it's making sure people are at question-time. That will be my responsibility. You are in the House a lot making sure your team get their fair share of speaking slots, and making sure the right people are there to speak.

The new senior whip is Lindsay Tisch. Have you worked with him before?

I went in with Lindsay in 1999. We sat together in the back of the House as new backbenchers.

Why did you want the job of whip?

I really wanted to learn the ropes in the House. You spend a large part of your time there and that's the essence of Parliament.

You were a National list MP from 1999 to 2002, and you're back after a three-year absence. Why did you want to come back?

For the reasons that National campaigned on. I'm a mother. Two of my three children are overseas and I believe we have to change the direction this country is taking to attract back and retain our talented young people.

What have you been doing over the past three years?

I was working for Signature Homes, working with people building new houses. It was with some reluctance that I took a decrease in salary, I suppose, and came back into Parliament. I was a new-home consultant, so I worked with people who wanted to build a new house. I did some selling, some design and some interior design.

In your last term you led two major campaigns for National on property relationships legislation and paid parental leave. Did you oppose both of those?

Yes, we did. We mounted a huge campaign on the Property Relationships Act. Some of the things we said would happen are now working their way through the courts, like big settlements on future earnings. The act forced women into the courts to get settlements, much more than the old Marriage Act. On paid parental leave, we were really opposed because it was double-dipping for state servants who already had very adequate paid parental leave provisions, and it did not allow for self-employed women. That has since been remedied in the last term.

How many MPs get to be retreads?

Certainly I've always wanted to be an electorate MP, so for me the opportunity to return as one is huge and that's what I went after.

What do you think of Don Brash as leader?

He's an excellent leader. National has raised its vote by 18 per cent and the campaign always focuses on the leader and he's done a tremendous job.

You don't think he's made too many mistakes?

No. I think that endeared him to many, many people, that he was honest and straightforward and if he made a mistake he accepted that he had done so and moved on. You are a former computer programmer. What was that job about?

I was trained in the Government Computer Centre. My first job was part of computerising the old School Certificate. That was the days when computers filled huge rooms and I was trained as a computer programmer/analyst in the old Cobol language [Common Business Oriented Language].