Tory Whanau on why she shared Ray Chung’s email
Friday, 18 July 2025
The re-emergence of damaging rumours prompted Wellington mayor Tory Whanau to seek out, then share with media, the contents of an email mayoral candidate Ray Chung sent to council colleagues more than two years ago.
It’s been a week since Chung’s message detailing second-hand accounts of Whanau’s alleged “night of debauchery” ‒ the contents of which Whanau says are false ‒ became public, sparking a major political backlash.
Whanau said she became aware of the email’s existence months ago, but hadn’t wanted to see it because other “salacious” rumours about her personal life were circulating.
But after being alerted to allegations posted on social media by another mayoral candidate, Graham Bloxham, and The Post’s reporting on a research dossier compiled on Labour-aligned candidates, she decided “this is the time”.
Speaking to Dunedin-based media company Big Hairy Network (BHN) on Wednesday, Whanau said she asked a person known to have the email for a copy, then sought advice from a close friend “very well versed in politics” about the next step ‒ passing the information to Northland-based NZ Herald senior journalist David Fisher.
“This is an elected member, he’s running for mayor, I don’t think he’s fit to run the city,” she told BHN’s hosts, in reference to Chung.
“I sat on [the email] for a few days because I thought … ‘these people are going to be talking about my breasts’. It is a horrible thing to think of, but I thought I would just take one for the team because people need to know.”
Whanau told The Post she was still considering legal action against anyone who had purposefully spread unverified rumours, but this might not occur until after the election. She is still running for a council seat, despite dropping out of the mayoralty race.
On Chung’s apology, which had been emailed to her earlier in the week, Whanau said it would take some time to consider. “I do want to move forward in a positive and collaborative manner.”
With councillor Nicola Young - one of the Chung email recipients - having repeated a different rumour about Whanau on web-based media site The Platform in 2023, she’d tired of “garbage, terrible politics”.
Whanau said she was told by lawyers she had grounds legal action, but as a new mayor wanted to focus on that job.
“I didn’t have nearly enough fire as I do now,” she told BHN.
In response, Young told The Post: “I’m not in the gossip business; I’ve got more important things to do - like doing my job as a city councillor.”
Alistair Boyce, the spokesperson for Chung’s campaign backer Better Wellington, did not respond to requests for comment, but spoke to The Platform on Thursday.
He was concerned about the impact negative publicity was having on Chung and the team of Independent Together candidates Better Wellington.
“Ray is now a very divisive figure in Wellington. You either love him or you hate him,” he told host Sean Plunket.
“We’ve got a lot of ground work to do, which we will do, and Ray is brilliant at it.”
Independent Together candidates were contacted on Thursday to ask if they still aligned with the banner following Lily Brown’s defection on Wednesday. It was later revealed two more were jumping ship - Andrea Compton and Dan Milward.
Only three responded.
Ken Ah Kuoi said nothing had changed with his involvement. “The email has been dealt with, Ray has apologised, so let’s move on.”
Stuart Wong said he was 100% behind the group, while Andrea Compton, before her announcement, refused to comment.