Wellington City Council vote to allow Ray Chung appointment

Thursday, 20 November 2025

Ray Chung keeps his chair position despite opposition, including from new colleagues.

Wellington City councillor Ray Chung has kept his chairperson position despite opposition from the public and Green faction of council.

Chung was found to have left a phone call open to controversial social media identity Graham Bloxham for 40 minutes during a private meeting last week. It means Bloxham was able to post about what was going on in real time, leading to the mayor’s office catching on and phones being searched.

Chung was spoken to by Mayor Andrew Little and council chief executive Matt Prosser after the incident, during which he said it was an honest mistake. Little accepted Chung’s explanation.

The forgiveness – as opposed to an investigation or revoking an earlier appointment to the chairperson position of the council-controlled organisation committee – led to an outcry on social mediawith people calling for a King’s Counsel or Office of the Auditor-General investigation.

READ MORE OF TOM HUNT’S JOURNALISM:

Separately, there was also an objection to Chung getting the role because he had written a lewd email about former mayor Tory Whanau in 2023 which she released before this year’s election. It was this that caused objection in the first council meeting on Thursday.

New Green councillor Jonny Osborne said he would vote for all chairperson appointments, including Chung’s. But he made a point, on behalf of all Green councillors to object to Chung’s “misogyny” in the email and victimisation about its release.

Councillors had the option of making an alternative appointment via a new or amended motion. It passed unanimously.

Following Little announcing he was putting Chung up for the chairperson position, his office received 191 templated emails in opposition. The template was written by Canterbury University law senior lecturer Cassandra Mudgway and author “Emily Writes”. It referenced the lewd email from 2023.

“That you knew that Ray Chung shared sexual and salacious gossip about a woman he worked with and still believed he should be in control of recommending appointments to boards shows abysmal judgement.”

Mudgway had planned to submit to the council but an issue with the video link prevented that but her written submission said it was not about punishing one elected member.

“It is about the democratic cost of normalising gendered disinformation and the online violence it generates. Leadership positions within council should reflect not only technical competence but also a commitment to integrity, accountability, and the safety of all elected members.

“For these reasons, I urge all councillors to vote against this appointment.”

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