Would-be Wellington mayor has a secret buyer and a hit list

Monday, 3 February 2025

Graham Bloxham, currently the owner of Wellington Live, is running for mayor. He wanted to hold a branch in this photo taken at the Botanic Garden.

Graham Bloxham, the man who would be Wellington’s mayor, is already talking of firing his first council staffer for opacity while being unwilling to reveal details of his media company’s new owner, which he says will likely sell members’ data.

Bloxham owns Facebook page Wellington Live and, according to him, 26 other sites that he said had been bundled into one parent organisation, One Network, which he had sold to an Australian organisation.

He said the deal was going through on March 31, though would not on Sunday reveal the name of the new owner, claiming he did not have permission to do so. He would stop creating content for his sites after the sale was completed.

Graham Bloxham with some discarded track pants beside a stretched Hummer on Sunday. The Hummer had nothing to do with him but he said it represented a “rags to riches” story.

He said the Australian company was “very big” in hosting websites and social media.

He alleged the company was already selling members’ data and would likely do that with Wellington Live and associated sites.

One Network, the New Zealand parent company that he said owned all 27 outlets, is not listed with the New Zealand Companies Office. The only other companies, other than Wellington - Live Limited, that Bloxham has a current registered link with are Housing Should be Affordable Ltd and In Your Pocket Media Ltd.

Graham Bloxham is in the fight to be Wellington’s next mayor.

Those who know and work with Bloxham on Sunday described him as a “polarising” figure who was passionate about Wellington. One described him as “very erratic” and someone who could be “great fun” one moment then cringe-worthy the next.

At a photo shoot for The Post on Sunday he insisted on posing with a stick he found on the ground then holding some discarded tracksuit pants to represent a “rags to riches” story while he posed in front of a stretched Hummer limousine which he had no connection with.

Bloxham’s run-ins with the Wellington City Council have been long running. He was last year kicked out of a council meeting, which he arrived to wearing gumboots, for his behaviour in the public gallery.

Graham Bloxham wants to cull 800 council staff.

Bloxham decided to run for mayor last Tuesday and announced it publicly on Wednesday morning with a pledge to cut 800 people from the council payroll among other promises.

He was on Sunday asked how he planned to work with a council he had spent so long slagging off but said he only had issues with three staff: Chief economic and engagement officer Anna Calver and media spokespeople Richard MacLean and Victoria Barton-Chapple. He accused all three of a lack of transparency, with particular spleen saved for MacLean.

“If he is not fired now, he will be when I get in,” Bloxham said. “The guy is not fit for purpose.”

MacLean said on Sunday the three targeted people were not interested in commenting on Bloxham’s claims.

Council staff are hired and ultimately managed by the chief executive, not the mayor or councillors.

Bloxham bought Wellington Live as an existing entity and said he now had a staff of three in New Zealand, six part-time content producers in Karachi, Pakistan (“one person in Karachi can do the work of six people here”), one in South America, and one in Australia.

He on Sunday said his model was to have pages free from advertising but confirmed he charged people to put posts on his pages.

City councillor Ray Chung, a fellow mayoral candidate who Bloxham spoke highly of, said Bloxham seemed to have put his name forward as mayor for reasons other than leading the city, “and I’m not sure what”.

Chung backed some of Bloxham’s ideas, such as saving money, “but I don’t think he has any plan on how to do it”.