Private council briefing blogged on social media after ‘hot mic’ moment

Tuesday, 18 November 2025

Councillor Ray Chung has apologised after leaving a phone line open during a private meeting.

Wellington City councillor Ray Chung has – so far – avoided censure after leaving a phone line open to a controversial social media figure, who live-posted details from a private council session.

During councillor media training last week, Chung left a phone line open to Wellington Live’s Graham Bloxham for 40 minutes. Bloxham was then able to reveal details of what was said, including – he claimed – derogatory statements about public figures.

The Post has seen a message Bloxham sent about the 40-minute “recording” saying it was teaching councillors how to “manipulate and control sentiment, set the tone and deal with pesky media reporters”.

He alleged various public figures were degraded in the talk, including Auckland mayor Wayne Brown.

Graham Bloxham, who dressed as a banana in his mayoral campaign, said it was a recording he got - not a phone call.

Chung did not respond requests for comment, but Wellington mayor Andrew Little confirmed the incident happened.

“[Chung] had not intended to answer the call but the call was answered. It appears the other party to the call heard 40 minutes of the training session,” Little said.

Information from the session was then posted on social media, leading to the mayor’s office stopping the session and all phones in the training room being checked.

It is understood this was when the call was discovered. Little said he and chief executive Matt Prosser had assurances from Chung the situation was unintentional and Chung had apologised.

He would not say if Chung would face any censure.

“Ensuring trust and confidence between councillors is an important priority for my leadership, as we seek to restore the confidence of Wellingtonians in the council,” Little said. In order to do that, “the highest standards of care and conduct are expected of councillors”.

Bloxham, who briefly ran for mayor, runs a series of social media pages including Wellington Live, but is a divisive figure with two former mayors – Justin Lester and Tory Whanau – calling him out for comments he has made online about them.

He recently had a $30,000 Employment Court finding against him, made claims that an arrest while driving was “fake news” before confirming he was arrested. During his mayoral run he dressed as a banana to highlight his claim that Wellington was a “banana republic”.

Bloxham on Tuesday said it was not a direct phone line that got him access, rather a recording of the meeting that was supplied to him by an outside source.

He claimed that source got legal remote access to the training via a back door through a publicly-available invite. He would not say whose device the back door was on.

“I was almost listening to it live,” he said.

He claimed he heard people “taking the piss” out of the Auckland mayor and other public figures.