Gilmore's 'inappropriate' emails revealed

National’s lowest-ranked list MP Aaron Gilmore blew a government contract because of “inappropriate” emails he sent to an official.

In the latest revelations of the disgraced MP’s unsavoury conduct, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) has released the emails Mr Gilmore sent late last year which cost him an extension of his contract with the former Department of Building and Housing, now part of the MBIE.

The emails do not contain any sexually explicit material but were of an “inappropriate tenor”, Andrew Crisp, deputy chief chief executive for a group within MBIE says.

The emails, which are revealed below, provide further examples of arrogant behaviour by Mr Gilmore, and use of his position as an MP to bully the staff member at the department.

In what is a thinly-veiled threat, Mr GIlmore tells an official within the department "this sort of thing will come back to haunt you if you want your career to reach its potential".

Mr Crisp's statement  contradicts what Mr Gilmore earlier told NBR ONLINE – that the contract had been extended three times then came to a natural end.

Mr Crisp says Mr Gilmore was advised the tone of his emails was “inappropriate” in the public sector context and that his contract, as a senior policy analyst in the housing area, would not be extended beyond its November 30 expiry date.

The contract was expected to be extended through to Christmas.

What were the emails about?
The identity of the recipient has not been revealed by MBIE.

But the staff member was liaising with Mr Gilmore about revision of a formal document. The staff member suggested four people, including Mr Gilmore, “get together” to agree of any changes that needed to be made.

The staff member suggested there were “some problems” in some of Mr Gilmore’s comments.

Mr Gilmore sent a response saying the figure mentioned was not incorrect.

A request for his analysis to support his statement was then met with a terse ticking off by Mr Gilmore:

“You may want to consider your perchant [sic] for firing off messages to all in sundry trying to undermine people simply because you don’t agree with them and ignoring facts and reality that exposes Ministers to significant risks. Given my background and that I go [sic] back into Parliament on the Govt side in the New Year I’m happy to talk about this with you at some stage, as this behaviour is far from productive to good policy making.
Aaron."

The staff member apologised for the fact Mr Gilmore felt that his questioning the facts was an attempt to personally undermine him.

In the reply email, Mr Gilmore outlined his work experience, including the fact he had "worked at Treasury though I saw the light and left as a senior advisor at 24," and was “the youngest MP on the finance committee last parliament, and made a few million as a GM in a multinational in the private sector in between, and took on a short term piece of contract work at MBiE to fill a time gap so I think I have a reasonable understanding of what Ministers need and what works and how Treasury should operate, through all this have never seen your approach to people and process before.

“It is not your questioning of analysis [sic] … I have no issue with that and indeed most of what I have said has been shown to be right once it has been debated, its some of your emotive emails which I have seen this past week or so you have sent to others which are nothing to do with analytics. I only tell you this as I am sure this sort of thing will come back to haunt you if you want your career to reach its potential.
Aaron."

Despite mounting calls for him to quit Parliament after revelations of his behaviour at a restaurant in Hanmer Springs, Mr Gilmour told media this week he would not step down as an MP.

gbond@nbr.co.nz