[2] After the re-election of the Turnbull government at the 2016 federal election, Gillespie was appointed Assistant Minister for Rural Health in the a ministerial reshuffle.

[5] In 2015, Gillespie argued that politicians who represent electorates larger than 10,000 square kilometres (such as his own) should receive additional expense payments.

[7] After finding a lack of support for his candidacy within the party room, he withdrew from the race and endorsed Michael McCormack, the only other announced candidate.

The Australian Labor Party (ALP) opposition and some community groups believed that Gillespie also had an indirect financial relationship with the federal government, in that he owned a suburban shopping complex in Port Macquarie which leased a premises to an Australia Post licensee.

The case was formally brought by Peter Alley, the ALP candidate for Gillespie's seat of Lyne at the 2016 federal election.

[13] Gillespie sold his interest in the shopping complex in early 2018, which would ensure his eligibility in a by-election if the court ruled that he was ineligible at the time of the 2016 election.

[14] On 21 March 2018, the seven members of the High Court determined unanimously that it did not have the jurisdiction to hear the case, unless the matter was referred to it by parliament.