In her first term, Tolley sat on the governance and administration committee and served as the National Party spokesperson for early childhood education and women's affairs.

[6] The bill responded to, and sought to overturn, the Court of Appeal's decision on Moonen v Film and Literature Board of Review, which had found that the right to freedom of expression in the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 held even in the Film and Literature Board of Review's consideration of photographs depicting children in sexualised poses.

Issues around censorship were progressed soon after through an inquiry into the Films, Videos, and Publications Classification Act 1993 and a government amendment passed in 2005.

[14] 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.

[19][20] 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.

[23] 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.

[24] 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.

[29] 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.

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

[35] 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.

[40] 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.