Aaron Gilmore - Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

Gilmore was selected by the National Party Christchurch East local electorate as its candidate in the safe Labour seat of Christchurch East at the end of 2007. In August 2008 the National Party announced that he would be placed at number 56 on the National Party list. Gilmore came second in the electorate race, losing to the incumbent, Lianne Dalziel, by 5,765 votes, but achieved a record for National in the area of over 12,000 party and personal votes.

Gilmore's curriculum vitae posted on his Parliament web page until 2010 listed him as a member of Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Institute, a position he never had. He attributed the error to the Parliamentary Service.

In the 2011 election, he again contested Christchurch East and was 53rd on the party list. He again placed second in the electorate behind Dalziel, and on election night results was set to be returned to parliament via the list, the last-placed candidate to be returned. However, with the counting of special votes and the release of official results, National lost a seat to the Green Party so Gilmore was not returned. By coincidence, Mojo Mathers, who also contested Christchurch East and was placed third behind Gilmore, was returned, due to her place on the Green Party list. In 2013, being the first placed candidate on the National Party list not returned, he returned to Parliament to replace Lockwood Smith, who had been appointed as High Commissioner of New Zealand to the United Kingdom.

In May 2013 Gilmore was again in the media, this time for calling a hotel waiter a 'dickhead', after consuming more than a bottle and a half of wine at the Heritage Hanmer Springs. He is also alleged to have handed over his business card and make a comment along the lines of, "Don't you know who I am? I'm an important politician!". It was also claimed he said he'd get Prime Minister John Key's office to have the waiter fired.

More than a week after the incident, Gilmore apologised, saying 'If there was a dickhead, it was me'. However he denied having threatened to have the Prime Minister's office sack the waiter.

Emails emerged in May 2013 from his time as a contractor to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) in November 2012, just prior to his return to Parliament in 2013. The emails contained comments to a Treasury official in which Gilmore said, after noting he was returning to Parliament as a government member, "I am sure this sort of thing will come back to haunt you if you want your career to reach its full potential." The emails were described as "inappropriate" by the Ministry and the Ministry said that his contract, which was due to be renewed, would not be renewed following the remarks. TV3 had asked Gilmore specifically, in a previously broadcast segment, whether there had been any complaints about his time at MBIE, and Gilmore had replied on camera that there was nothing that had been brought to his attention.

Gilmore announced his resignation from Parliament on 12 May 2013 and gave his valedictory speech two days later. His membership of Parliament ceased on 27 May, and his committee memberships (Maori Affairs, and Local Government and Environment) a day later. He was replaced by Claudette Hauiti.