Hutt mayor Campbell Barry wins case seeking Facebook page takedown order

Monday, 14 April 2025

Former Hutt City councillor Chris Milne has been unveiled as the person behind a Facebook page that mayor Campbell Barry says exposed him and his family to sustained online abuse.

The page, Hutt City Council - The Truth Exposed, was active for a number of years, before Barry and his family became the subject of what they say was sustained abuse between January and November last year.

The page made a number of allegations against Barry, which he said had “sought to exploit [his wife’s] sensitive and complex personal family circumstances”.

Barry told the court the posts contained “false allegations and threats”. It had drawn attention to a complaint made to MPI about the treatment of alpacas and sheep on Barry’s property, which Barry told the court had been unfounded and he believed malicious.

He had gone to police about a comment Milne had made on one of the posts, saying Barry should be worried and “Mossad always gets its man”. Police had warned Milne, according to Barry’s affidavit to the court, and the post was removed.

Barry told the court he and his wife felt unsafe at home.

He sought the court’s help to identify who was behind the page.

The court, in response to Barry’s affidavits, ruled the page had breached principles of the Harmful Digital Communications Act and in September it ordered that Meta shut down the page and that any identifying information about who was running it be revealed.

Late last year Milne was identified as the operator and he was joined to Hutt Valley District Court proceedings.

During a hearing at the Hutt Valley District Court on Monday suppression orders were lifted, allowing Milne to be identified. He consented to the suppression order being lifted. Milne’s lawyer Thomas Newman told The Post he had wanted to speak freely about the case but had been unable to until now.

The matter is still before the court as Milne ‒ who is in Spain and did not attend the hearing ‒ has asked for a substantive hearing on the court’s findings, which will be held later this year. The court heard Milne wanted the opportunity to defend the appropriateness of the page and argue that it didn’t fall within the definition of harmful communications.

The court heard that Milne had filed an affidavit and intended to reveal the Facebook page involved the participation of other people. A substantive hearing based on the arguments made in Milne’s affidavits will be held later in the year. The Post has asked the court to release the full file.

Milne’s lawyer Thomas Newman told The Post it was Milne’s position his connection to the page was never secret and he did not attempt to hide the fact he was operating it. He was not the original creator, however.

The Free Speech Union, which Milne is a member of, has been helping fund Milne’s legal counsel. Chief executive Jonathan Ayling told The Post the group was concerned the Harmful Digital Communications Act was stifling genuine democratic debate.

Milne is also a former ACT Party parliamentary chief of staff and current member of the Taxpayers Union board.

In 2020, Milne was found guilty of council code of conduct breaches, relating to allegations of interfering with the council's waste and recycling tender process, and a conflict of interest arising from council's plans to sell land for the benefit of Hutt Valley Tennis.

An independent investigator found Milne had breached rules around relationships with the public in relation to the first complaint, and conflict of interest and ethical behaviour in relation to the second.

At the time Milne refused to apologise and alleged a “political hit job”.

In 2022 Milne lost a complaint to the Ombudsman in which he alleged unfair treatment by Barry and that the code of conduct charges were politically motivated. Then Ombudsman Peter Boshier rejected the complaint and said council had acted appropriately trying to resolve the dispute.

Nine of Milne’s fellow councillors subsequently called for his resignation and in 2022 he said he would not be seeking re-election.

Ayling, of the Free Speech Union, characterised Barry’s proceeding as a standing mayor using the law to “suppress political rivals who are expressing legitimate political commentary”, which he described as “outrageous”.

The union is working across 15 different cases before the courts, where it has concerns about “very vague provisions that can be used against individuals expressing lawful, legitimate and important contributions into public discourse”.

“That a mayor contends he is emotionally harmed by public scrutiny is outrageous,” Ayling said.

Barry told The Post recent publicity about the abuse high-profile figures received had prompted him to go public with his story.

“We understand that public office comes with scrutiny and, at times, criticism ‒ even some level of abuse. That's a reality,” Barry and his wife, Laura, said in a statement provided to The Post. “But there is a line ‒ and that line is crossed when attacks target families, intrude on private lives, and deliberately seek to cause harm beyond the political arena.”

The Barrys said in the statement they wanted people to know legal avenues were available. “You can hold people who try to hide under the cloak of anonymity to account.”

Barry said his decision to step down had not been influenced by the abuse.

He declined to comment further.