He joined the National Party in 1966, and has held a number of senior roles in its organisational wing. In 1994 he served briefly as the party's president and was the party's campaign manager for the
1996 election. Tisch was selected to replace
John Luxton as National's candidate in the electorate of in the
1999 election. He defeated the Labour candidate by 5,000 votes. The name of the electorate was changed back to for the
2002 election and the
2005 election; Tisch was comfortably re-elected each time. The name referred to a
little-known river past
Morrinsville, and Tisch was successful in lobbying to have the electorate renamed after the
Waikato River. In the
2008 election, Tisch was re-elected in the recreated
Waikato seat with a majority of 12,850 over
Jacinda Ardern. He was further re-elected in the
2011 election and
2014 election, after which he retired. Tisch was never a minister but held senior parliamentary roles in the National Party and in the House of Representatives. He was the National Party junior whip (2002–2005) and senior whip (2005–2006) before taking on roles as Deputy
Speaker of the House (2008–2011) and Assistant Speaker of the House (2011–2017). Under former leaders
Bill English and
Don Brash, Tisch was briefly National Party spokesperson for small business (2002–2005), civil defence and emergency services (2003–2004), and internal affairs (2003–2005).
Political views Tisch held conservative views and opposed
same-sex marriage law reform. In 2004, Tisch voted against the
Civil Union Act 2004, a bill making it legal for those in same-sex as well as heterosexual relationships to enter into a civil-union. In 2005, Tisch voted for
Gordon Copeland's Marriage (Gender Clarification) Amendment Bill, a bill which would have amended the Marriage Act to define marriage as only between a man and woman. In 2012 and 2013, Tisch voted against the
Marriage (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Bill, a bill allowing same-sex couples to marry in New Zealand. ==Honours==