Andrew Hamilton Falloon (born 29 August 1983) is a former New Zealand politician, serving as a Member of Parliament in the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...

for the

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from 2017 until his resignation in July 2020.

Early life

Falloon was born in Ashburton in 1983. He received his education at Allenton Primary School before boarding at Christchurch Boys’ High School. He attended the

University of Canterbury The University of Canterbury (UC; ; postnominal abbreviation ''Cantuar.'' or ''Cant.'' for ''Cantuariensis'', the Latin name for Canterbury) is a public research university based in Christchurch, New Zealand. It was founded in 1873 as Canterbur ...

to study political science and economics.

Political career

At the and elections Falloon stood as a list-only candidate for

ACT New Zealand ACT New Zealand (; ), also known as the ACT Party or simply ACT, is a Right-wing politics, right-wing, Classical liberalism, classical liberal, Right-libertarianism, right-libertarian, and Conservatism, conservative List of political parties i ...

. From 2007, he worked as a researcher at Parliament, before working in the ministerial offices of

Rodney Hide Rodney Philip Hide (born 16 December 1956) is a former New Zealand politician of the ACT New Zealand party. Hide was a Member of Parliament for ACT from 1996 until 2011, was ACT's leader between 2004 and 2011, and represented the constituency ...

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and

Steven Joyce Steven Leonard Joyce (born 7 April 1963) is a New Zealand former politician, who entered the New Zealand House of Representatives in 2008 as a member of the New Zealand National Party. As a broadcasting entrepreneur with RadioWorks, he was a ...

Member of Parliament

At the 2017 general election, Falloon contested the

electorate Electorate may refer to: * The people who are eligible to vote in an election, especially their number e.g. the term ''size of (the) electorate'' * The dominion of a prince-elector in the Holy Roman Empire until 1806 * An electoral district ...

of as a candidate for the National Party. Rangitata had been held by National since the electorate was created in 2008. Falloon won the electorate, defeating Labour candidate Jo Luxton by 6,331 votes. With the National Party in Opposition, Falloon was appointed as the party's spokesperson on South Island regional development during

Simon Bridges Simon Joseph Bridges (born 12 October 1976) is a New Zealand retired politician, broadcaster and lawyer. He served as Leader of the New Zealand National Party, Leader of the National Party and Leader of the Opposition (New Zealand), Leader of t ...

' leadership, and spokesperson for biosecurity under the leadership of both

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and

Judith Collins Judith Anne Collins (born 24 February 1959) is a New Zealand politician who has served as the attorney-general and minister of defence since 27 November 2023. She served as the leader of the Opposition and leader of the New Zealand National P ...

. In 2020, Falloon voted for the Abortion Legislation Bill, which decriminalised abortion. He supported the End of Life Choice Bill, which aims to legalise voluntary euthanasia.

Resignation

On 20 July 2020, Falloon announced that he would not seek re-election at the 2020 general election, citing personal reasons following the suicide of a friend. It was later reported that he had sent a pornographic image to a 19-year-old female university student. The parents of the young woman emailed this information to prime minister

Jacinda Ardern Dame Jacinda Kate Laurell Ardern ( ; born 26 July 1980) is a New Zealand politician and activist who was the 40th prime minister of New Zealand and Leader of the New Zealand Labour Party, leader of the Labour Party from 2017 to 2023. She was ...

; Ardern's chief of staff notified National Party leader

. Police investigated the matter but decided that sending the image did not meet the threshold for prosecution. According to ''

The New Zealand Herald ''The New Zealand Herald'' is a daily newspaper published in Auckland, New Zealand, owned by New Zealand Media and Entertainment, and considered a newspaper of record for New Zealand. It has the largest newspaper circulation in New Zealand, ...

'', Falloon claimed that he had left his phone unattended during the party and that one of his acquaintances had sent the image. Despite insisting that he had not sent the message, Falloon reportedly offered his resignation to Collins, which she accepted. On 21 July 2020, Falloon resigned as a Member of Parliament effective immediately. His resignation accompanied media reports that he had sent two inappropriate images to two other women. Collins also stated that she "no longer trusted his story" of the incident with the first woman and "had lost confidence in him." After his resignation a total of “at least five" women have reported similar behaviour by Falloon. In response to complaints that Falloon had sent unsolicited explicit messages to multiple women, the New Zealand Police launched an investigation into the former National MP, but at the conclusion of the investigation, Police decided not to press charges against him.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Falloon, Andrew 1983 births Living people New Zealand National Party MPs ACT New Zealand politicians Members of the New Zealand House of Representatives Unsuccessful candidates in the 2005 New Zealand general election Unsuccessful candidates in the 2008 New Zealand general election Candidates in the 2017 New Zealand general election New Zealand MPs for South Island electorates