He gained one of two scholarships for young farmers from the Meat and Wool Board and used it to study farming in Britain and the United States.

[8][9] The electorate had been taken from National by Kerry Burke of the Labour Party at the previous election, but was won back by Quigley.

[15] Quigley rapidly earned the hostility of senior National Party figures, however, with his criticism of the government's economic policies.

[18] This was also related to a preceding event in December 1980 when Quigley spoke of releasing an "alternative economic manifesto" and Muldoon threatened to sack him from the Cabinet.

In June the following year, he made a public denunciation of the government's policies, saying that the state should have a passive role in the economy while giving a speech to the Young Nationals in which he raised doubts about the government's Think Big growth strategy, which aimed to overcome crippling foreign exchange losses by using cheap power in the manufacture of steel, aluminium and timber products to export.

[20] Subsequently, Muldoon told Quigley to attempt to prevent the editor of The Dominion from publishing the full transcript of the speech.

Yet again Quigley defied Muldoon and went on the show where he made no attempt at retracting his criticisms of government economic policy.

[23] In 1994, Quigley re-entered the political arena, joining forces with Roger Douglas to form the ACT New Zealand party.

He unsuccessfully sought to be Speaker of the House,[24] and was instead appointed the chair of the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Select Committee.

Quigley did not stand for re-election in 1999 election and was immediately appointed by the incoming Prime Minister, Helen Clark, to review the contract the previous government had signed with the United States for New Zealand to acquire 28 near new F-16 fighter aircraft.

In early 2004 Quigley moved to Canberra to take up a position as a visiting fellow at ANU's Strategic & Defence Studies Centre.

He researched and wrote on trans-Tasman and regional security issues and on the ongoing situation between the United States and New Zealand over the latter's anti-nuclear policy.