Tensions boil over at The Post mayoral debate

Wednesday, 17 September 2025

The Post’s mayoral debate got heated after one of Ray Chung’s staffers tried to snatch papers Andrew Little took from Chung, who claimed that his campaign had separated from Better Wellington but also admitted to receiving $40,000 from Better Wellington supporter Vlad Barbalich.

Chung had been admitting the Barbalich funding but also said Independent Together had not received funding from the controversial group for “quite a while” and that Independent Together had separated from Better Wellington.

But Little interjected, taking a printed out speech from Chung which was drafted by Better Wellington and spoke against Little’s campaign, saying the city would see continual rates rises under Little’s leadership.

Behind the camera, his two staffers attempted to gain Chung’s attention and signal at him to stop the speech about their backer.

It was then that Chung’s campaign volunteer intervened, attempting to snatch the speech from Little twice. Unable to take it, she threw her hands up in frustration.

Chung, Little, Karl Tiefenbacher and Diane Calvert ‒ the leading contenders on recent polling ‒ were grilled by The Post national affairs editor Andrea Vance in a live debate on Wednesday.

Chung said he had wanted to separate himself from the group since the start, but could not, due to its fundraising.

‘Initially I wanted a clear separation from them, because they came up with lots of things … I knew nothing about those things,“ Chung said.

Chung is referencing the dirty dossier on Labour candidates, including labelling mask-wearers “Covidians,” slamming candidates’ partners, and painting pro-Māori views as extremist.

Chung was also questioned on a comment he made at a mayoral debate this week, directly comparing Maori wards with apartheid South Africa. Chung said the comment was taken out of context, and “everybody should be treated equally”, but he later said he did not remember saying it and ultimately skirted around the question.

Most recently councillor Rebecca Matthews, who was targeted online with a number of slurs and compared with the man accused of shooting conservative American influencer Charlie Kirk.

The staffer physically confronted Little after the debate about him taking the papers.

The Post livestreamed the debate at www.thepost.co.nz, and a full replay will become available online and on our Youtube channel. The Post also hosted a debate with the Chamber of Commerce last week.

A recent 1News poll shows Little is in the clear lead, with 58% of pollers listing him as their first preference. Chung comes behind in second place, winning over 16% of those polled while Tiefenbacher sat at 10% and Calvert on 6%.

What sets the candidates apart from each other?

Former MP and senior Cabinet Minister Little has more political experience than the rest. He said his track record gave him a range of skills, including negotiating and forging relationships.

But where being an MP was to be a team player, to be a mayor was quite different; its job was to unite the group, Little said.

With most of the mayoral candidates independent, Little has had criticisms for being affiliated to a party. While Little said he was “Labour through and through”, the party informed his values and not his decisions.

Little then began to talk policy, and when the Living Wage - a rate higher than the minimum wage - was discussed as a way to bring young people to the city, Tiefenbacher interjected, saying no hospitality business could afford to pay their workers this, and it would be passed onto the pensioners and families who were paying rates.

Wellington City Council is taking steps towards becoming New Zealand’s first council to adopt a Living Wage.

With Tiefenbacher the only candidate without political experience, he was compared to current mayor Tory Whanau, who also lacked governance experience coming into the job. Tiefenbacher hit back, saying it was “ironic” to compare the two when their experience was completely different.

His advantage was being a business owner, and he believed owning a business and running a council were not all too different, though Calvert disagreed.

“It has over 400 services, it spends over a billion dollars. It's very much a creature of legislation as well,” she said.

Calvert said it was her knowledge of the politics, people, plans and the budgets that set her aside. Chung said it was his ability to fight, even if only a minority backed his ideas.

What about the Golden Mile?

The Golden Mile has been a divisive subject for the council. The project is often the first listed to go by those who want to reign in the council’s spending, but all can agree the central city needs some love.

The contract for Courtenay Place has not been signed, meaning there’s a chance for it to fall into the hands of the next mayor.

Little was on the fence. While he argued for walkable spaces to attract people to live in the central city, he said the costing was an issue.

How he could reduce costs was hard to say. The government’s NZTA funding leaves little wiggle room to move on the design for fears of the government pulling the plug.

Chung’s suggestion is probably not realistic. He wants to have the building owners to tidy up their building’s themselves, saying with enough incentive it could be done.

Tiefenbacher said the streets needed a spruce up with CCTV and lighting, saying the job could be done for $5m.

The growing homelessness in the central city needed a “a firm hand”, he said. “If I can't park my car on the street for three hours they can’t pitch a tent for three days.”

Calvert wanted the project ditched entirely, however the council should tidy up the area between Cambridge Terrace and Taranaki St.