'Revoked' controversial councillor loses more privileges, immediately leaks email

Friday, 8 May 2026

After a series of email leaks, including confidential information, by a renegade councillor, the Dunedin City Council has placed steps to reduce damage.

First-term councillor on the DCC, Benedict Ong, has raised the ire of the council’s chief executive over continually leaking emails, including the latest, an email about him leaking sensitive information.

That email from chief executive Sandy Graham was sent to Ong, and senior council staff members on Friday at 3.35pm, with the subject line: ‘Restrictions on your access to confidential material and arrangement for managing your access to information’.

Dunedin City Council's chief executive Sandy Graham.

Less than an hour later that email was replied to by Ong, and also copied in were several media outlets, including Stuff.

In that email, Graham told Ong, “I am disappointed you will not meet with me, about release of confidential information.”

“Given that refusal, I am now going to put in place steps to manage the wide range of risks to the DCC that your unauthorised release of confidential information is creating.

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

“I am doing so as a necessary step to prevent further unauthorised release of such information.”

To limit his access to confidential information, Ong was told he was free to attend all council meetings as usual in his role as elected member, and be provided normal access to council agendas and papers, “where they are open to the public”.

But his access to confidential information in the councillor hub, known as “BigTinCan” , has been revoked.

Ong would be able to view public excluded and confidential agenda items for council meetings in hard copy form only.

Cr Benedict Ong, in a lengthy email chain, inadvertently leaked details about a new hotel proposal for Dunedin's Forsyth Barr Stadium.

He was not allowed to take a copy away, nor take photos of those items.

“Your reading of such confidential papers will be supervised to ensure these requirements are followed,” Graham wrote.

“I need to take this step to manage the real and consistent risk of such information being released by you without authorisation.”

Ong, who once wore tape on his face in protest, and in another meeting read from Kafka when being censured by his fellow councillors, previously disclosed confidential information about a proposed hotel for Forsyth Barr Stadium to media.

Benedict Ong was voted on to the Dunedin City Council.

Graham added that she was prepared to review those arrangements should Ong “agree and demonstrate to me a willingness to no longer release confidential information without authority”.

“For clarity, I have copied all elected members on this email.”

That is when Ong replied to the same recipients but copied in members of the media, and noted the Code of Conduct complaints against him.

“I am disappointed that you have so chosen to continue this.”

He added that he was “prepared to review our relationship between myself as a Public Elected Member receiving daily public support and encouragement, and yourself as an unelected executive using your authoritative powers as CEO to conduct these actions against myself and our community”.

He urged her to “withdraw this pattern of false attacks and assist me in delivering for our community”, adding that then he would be glad to support her work.