Watch: Councillor reads from ‘The Trial’ before being censured

Wednesday, 25 March 2026

Cr Benedict Ong reads from The Trial by Franz Kafka, at a Code of Conduct meeting.

Cr Benedict Ong, a first time councillor, arrived slightly late to a meeting where he was due to be censured by his own council.

That meeting of the Dunedin City Council (DCC) on Wednesday morning was to discuss the findings of an investigation by Wellington-based employment lawyer, Steph Dyhrberg into the behaviour of Ong.

The investigation was prompted by a code of conduct complaint from chief executive Sandy Graham after Ong emailed concerns about a staff member and copied in media. At the time Graham said his actions opened the council to potential civil liability issues. Ong later disputed the investigation, questioned the investigator’s independence, and continued sharing correspondence with media, according to a council report.

At the meeting Ong was asked if he wanted to speak to the report, he replied: “I certainly do”.

He then read a passage from a book, The Trial by Franz Kafka, which is about a man arrested and prosecuted for a crime that is not revealed neither to him nor readers.

After the impromptu book reading, Mayor Sophie Barker to moved that Ong had materially breached the council’s Code of Conduct, and invited him to resign from council.

Barker said she had no confidence in Ong.

Ong did find some support around the table from Cr Russell Lund, who feared the matter was wasting council’s time, and was possibly costing ratepayers around $100,000.

Council voted 10-2 that Ong had breached council’s Code of Conduct.

Cr Benedict Ong and Mayor Sophie Barker at his swearing in as a councillor.

That led to him being stripped of several council representative roles, with Mayor Barker adding that she did not have confidence that Ong would behave appropriately.

Cr Lee Vandervis noted that move would impact Ong’s remuneration, by $16k, and if councillors were not all paid equally it would create “schism” around the table.

Cr Andrew Simms said the matter highlighted the shortfall of the Code of Compliance, and if Ong’s behaviour happened elsewhere in the community, such as a church or a school board, he would be removed.

Mayor Barker asked for councillors to support the move for Ong’s removal from his portfolio, and council-appointed roles, which was supported.

A Code of Conduct complaint was laid by DCC chief executive Sandy Graham and centres around an email - sent by Ong - raising concerns about a staff member, which was copied to media.

Screenshot of a video of Benedict Ong from Thursday, he repeated wearing duct tape over his mouth on Friday when he gatecrashed a meeting he was not invited to.

A council report detailed that Ong was sent an email from the chief executive on February 5, marked ‘In confidence - Code of Conduct complaint’.

That email noted his email, which was sent a day prior, was in breach of the council’s Code of Conduct, particularly the section dealing with ‘relationships with staff’.

Graham’s email noted that Ong’s action included not raising his concerns with the chief executive before making them public, he also publicly criticized an employee, and “possibly exposed council to civil liability”.

Graham also added that the email was to be treated as confidential, until the investigator had reviewed the material.

Benedict Ong, was elected to the Dunedin City Council late last year.

Ong was emailed by Dyhrberg on February 9, and that was followed by Ong emailing her a day later.

In the latter email he said he did not intent to answer any of her questions, and reiterated that he did not believe there were any grounds for the investigation.

Ong later questioned the investigator’s independence, while she noted that he continued to leak correspondence between them to the media.

Ong was later sent a preliminary report asking for feedback, but none was given.

Last month Ong, who was wearing tape covering his face, was escorted from a council building after attending the meeting between councillors and local MPs.

Ong was reprimanded over his previous behaviour towards Barker and the council’s chief executive, and his lack of apology, which included him being removed from council appointments and privileges, until such time as he apologised.

Outside the meeting, Ong told Stuff he did not consider resigning and reiterated that he had been elected by the community to serve.

He wanted to work with his fellow elected members “as one big happy family, now it seems like there is a great deal of sibling rivalry . . . this dysfunctional family I am apart of”.

He did not believe he should apologise, but was owed an apology from others.