Wellington mayoral hopeful’s ‘threat’ email referred to police

Friday, 25 April 2025

Wellington mayoral candidate Graham Bloxham’s threat of “a good public shaming” for police staff who contradicted him has been referred to police.

The drama unfolded in late March after Bloxham’s Wellington Live Facebook page had a post saying a “man with firearm has entered the shopping area of Stokes Valley, apparently entered the library with a firearm and is now walking around with it”.

The post has since been deleted and Bloxham claimed to be selling the page, although he remains the listed owner of the company and has given no proof of the sale.

Soon after the Wellington Live post, police posted on Facebook about “a social media page” reporting an armed incident at a Stokes Valley shopping centre. “There is no such incident and the claims are incorrect,” the police post said. It did not mention Bloxham or Wellington Live.

The following day, an email from Bloxham’s address arrived in Police Minister Mark Mitchell’s inbox claiming the police media team “allow their page to bully and troll the company and me”. The message called for the “disgraceful, nasty” post to be deleted and that a public apology be issued.

“At present ‘i am doing the Mahi’ to find the assholes that run this page's personal identities, and i will give them a good public shaming of themselves, see how they go! [sic],” the email, obtained by The Post, said.

Bloxham in January announced his plans to run for mayor, putting him up for a full city vote against big names such as Andrew Little and Tory Whanau. But he is also running for a councillor seat in the Motukairangi/Eastern ward, a position that needs far fewer votes to succeed.

Mitchell’s office told The Post Bloxham’s email had been passed on to police.

Police could not comment on what, if any, action they would take about the email.

Bloxham would not comment on the appropriateness of his post, nor whether he had been approached by police.

“Go f… your self Tom,” he emailed in response to questions.

“Youre a total bottom feeder, and a wanna be. And no Police haven't contacted me, and of they do I won't be telling you. You can print that if you like [sic].”

Public Service Association national secretary Fleur Fitzsimons said threats to police staff were “serious and should be treated as such”.

It was appropriate Mitchell had referred the matter to the police as there were possibly elements of “harassment, cyber-bullying and blackmail” involved, she said.

“We are confident police will pursue this matter appropriately including by considering laying criminal charges,” Fitzsimons said.

The police social media team provided critical and fast information to the public quickly, she said.

“Their work is important and valuable including when they are correcting false claims of criminal activity as is the case here,” Fitzsimons said.

The Post recently revealed former Wellington mayor Justin Lester was taking legal action against Bloxham in an attempt to stop him from “trolling”, defaming and making public comments about him.

Lester said this week he was still in the mediation process through Netsafe, but had given Bloxham a May 1 deadline to publicly apologise for all social media posts and emails “characterising me as dishonest or fraudulent”, immediately cease all social media posts about Lester or his businesses, and cease all future contact with Lester, his business colleagues or business associates.