Call for please-explain as Wellington mayoral candidate linked to conspiracy group

Wednesday, 28 May 2025

Wellington City Council councillor Ray Chung said he had nothing to do with setting up his own website.

Wellington mayoral candidate Ray Chung is being called on to explain apparent links between his campaign and controversial groups Inflection Point and Resistance Kiwi.

Internet data shows the websites for Chung’s campaign, Better Wellington, Independent Together (IT), Inflection Point and Resistance Kiwi were, until late April, on a single private server with no other current websites on there. All but Resistance Kiwi, which is no longer active, migrated around the same day to a new private IP address.

Keith Ng, a former journalist and digital investigator, said there was evidence these were “run by the same person or organisation”.

A technology commentator separately confirmed it was 'highly likely' the sites were connected and appeared to be run by the same person or organisation.

But Chung said he had nothing to do withthe website. “Glenn Inwood set up my website but, honestly, I have never looked at it,” he said.

Raychung.nz currently has no information. Better Wellington and IT websites are populated.

Hundreds of protesters gathered outside Te Papa last May when the Inflection Point NZ conference was held at the Tākina convention centre opposite.

Better Wellington, a group of residents disaffected with the Wellington City Council, has IT as an effective political arm. IT is fielding Chung, a current city councillor, as mayor and 10 other council hopefuls in this year’s Wellington City Council election.

Better Wellington and IT are going into the 2025 council elections with a substantial war chest, which Chung said included a one-off donation from a respected and well-known Wellingtonian who he would not identify.

Inflection Point ran a seminar at Tākina in Wellington in May 2024 calling for the Government to “stop gender indoctrination and medicalisation of our children”, but protesters labelled it “hostile to trans people” and Te Papa called off cancelling the event after a legal threat. Speakers included controversial figures Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull, also known as Posie Parker, and Brian Tamaki of Destiny Church.

Resistance Kiwi appeared to promote conspiracy theories about vaccines during the pandemic and was instrumental in the 2022 occupation of Parliament. It was recently run by Inwood, who has worked for Japanese whaling and tobacco industries and who has previously approached The Post on behalf of Better Wellington and Chung.

Wellington City councillor Geordie Rogers is demanding “immediate transparency” from Ray Chung about links to controversial sites.

Inwood was asked about links between himself and the various websites. Chung owned his own domain, while Better Wellington web designers handled its hosting requirements, he said.

Mayor Tory Whanau passed on a request for comment to councillor Geordie Rogers.

“The shared IP address between these organisations and Ray Chung raises a red flag, demanding immediate transparency from the mayoral candidate regarding the nature of this relationship,” he said.

“Voters deserve full disclosure of candidates’ affiliations to make informed decisions and prevent hidden influences or extremist ideologies from dividing our community. Chung’s forthrightness about these connections is crucial for his accountability to the public.'

Paul Heffernan, who has Better Wellington and Independent Together websites registered to him, said he was not aware of any link between Inflection Point and Better Wellington.

Better Wellington spokesperson Alistair Boyce said some members of Better Wellington possibly also supported Inflection Point or Resistance Kiwi. The policy pillars of IT were mainly devised by himself, Chung, Inwood and Heffernan in consultation with Better Wellington members, Boyce said.

Inwood also set up the Better Wellington and IT websites, Boyce confirmed.

“Personally I have no involvement with Inflection or Resistance Kiwi and to my knowledge no-one in Independent Together does either,” he said.

“We have garnered candidates through Better Wellington and numerous volunteers.

“I would suggest any connections of persons to Inflection or Resistance Kiwi are only a reflection of personal politics and tenuous in reality,” he said.

“There is no grand conspiracy just many people who are primarily concerned about the city of Wellington.”

Mayoral candidate Andrew Little said Chung and his group could answer for their campaign “but I would not support groups that target our trans community”.

Mayoral candidate Karl Tiefenbacher confirmed he was not connected to any of the groups and said it was inappropriate to comment on a fellow mayoral candidate’s group.