[2] Following her marriage Vale was a stay-at-home mother for a number of years, eventually enrolling to study law at the University of Sydney in 1984.

[1] In 2003 her department released a review of veterans' entitlements, although she quickly rejected its recommendation to means-test the Repatriation Health Card.

[3] In October 2003 the South Australian branch of the Returned and Services League of Australia (RSL) passed a motion of no-confidence in Vale, citing "a long standing problem of getting responses" and her late arrival and early departure from its annual general meeting.

[6] After losing her ministry, Vale joined the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Science and Innovation[7] established to look at the technology of geosequestration of carbon dioxide.

However, Vale was one of four MPs issuing a dissenting report in which they stated, "We do not believe the evidence unequivocally supports the hypothesis of anthropogenic global warming".

[12] In June 2009, Vale was one of four Liberal MPs to support a Labor move to abolish the practice of charging asylum seekers the cost of their detention.