Hecklers shut down Ray Chung roadshow

Wednesday, 16 July 2025

Councillor Ray Chung talking angry at Labour and Green over alleged smear campaign

Ray Chung’s final Zero Rates Increase roadshow was shut down early by hecklers, Independent Together candidate Paula Muollo has confirmed.

Independent Together (IT) is the political arm of Better Wellington, a group of Wellingtonians disaffected by council rating and spending. It has amassed a large war chest to fight the upcoming council elections. Independent Together is running Ray Chung for mayor and eight people for council seats. If all elected, they would hold the crucial council majority.

But the campaign has been bogged down in controversy in the last week after being found to be sharing misinformation, the revelation of a dossier on Labour rivals and the release of a lewd 2023 email Chung wrote about mayor Tory Whanau.

Tuesday night at The Grand in Courtenay Place was the last of a 13-stop, one-month roadshow around the city touting ideas and drumming up support.

Independent Together candidate Paula Muollo has confirmed hecklers meant an Independent Together road show was stopped early.

But Muollo said Monday night in Miramar was the was the first time security guards were brought in. And Tuesday night was the first time they were needed after hecklers interrupted the final roadshow and were removed, she said.

“It is bullying, it is aggressive. People are actually feeling scared,” Muollo said.

The uproar happened after each candidate had spoken and during the question and answer session. As a result, the session was “paused” before the scheduled finishing time, she said. Chung and Alistair Boyce from Better Wellington did not return calls for comment on Wednesday.

Monday night’s roadshow in Miramar, the first with security, had just one heckler, who challenged the group’s claims on various councils’ rates increases.

At the event, candidate Andrea Compton, an accountant, gave some insight over how the group would achieve three years of no rates rises – a claim both Chung and Boyce have previously said was optimistic at best.

Two of the levers they want to pull is getting the central government to take over the council’s social housing – an idea already dismissed by the government – and private investment for some planned zoo programmes.

While Independent Together is a unified group of candidates with five “pillars” – no rates increases for three years, bringing council back to basics, making the city more accessible, the removal of party politics from council, and city safety – they insist they are each independents and not a political party.