Councillor Ray Chung fuming at mayor: ‘I wanted to help and this is what happens’

Friday, 24 April 2026

Wellington City councillor Ray Chung has found himself again in hot water after police top brass directly called mayor Andrew Little relating to his actions amid a state of emergency.

The body of Philip Sutton, in his 60s, was found in the mouth of Karori Stream on Wednesday after he went missing from Karori during torrential rain on Monday.

Chung was involved to some degree in the search but it is disagreement about exactly what happened that has Little confirming he simply does not believe his councillor’s version.

Chung on Thursday confirmed to The Post that Little was taking action, which played out after Sutton was known to be missing. He would not say what type of action the mayor was taking.

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“I’m very pissed off. I wanted to help and this is what happens,” Chung said.

The councillor said he was in touch with a third party, who knew Sutton’s sister, who was understood to be frustrated police were having a planning day in the search and was trying to organise a search party.

Chung was adamant he had no part in arranging the volunteers but said seven of them had turned up to South Karori Rd to start searching early this week.

Chung said he talked to the police officer in charge, who told him that he did not want untrained volunteers as it could mean police ending up having to search for more people.

He claimed that he went to the scene to request volunteers, who he did not know, to stand down. He confirmed he was wearing a council-branded high-vis jacket at the time and thought that was allowed.

He said he passed this information to Little.

“He said he doesn’t believe me,” Chung said.

Little told The Post he was contacted by Wellington City area commander Inspector Dean Silvester concerned about Chung’s actions.

“I spoke to Ray about that, and I was concerned enough about those responses that I consider that it's something I have to follow up,” he said. That would happen after he dealt with the current flooding crisis.

Little confirmed he did not believe Chung’s version of events. He would not go into the version he had heard from police because the response may have to be “formalised”. He would not rule out any potential actions.

“It was his actions in the course of a state of emergency and in light of police advice about what they were doing. And the fact that there was a matter [the search] that they were in control of.”

Chung has found himself regularly in trouble, most-recently after he had to amend his statutory-required pecuniary interest declaration after incorrectly claiming voting rights in property developer Willis Bond and omitting a company in which he holds a stake.

Chung ran a failed mayoral campaign as the figurehead of the group Independent Together. The campaign was marred with links to a conspiracy group, a dossier compiled against his Labour rivals and the release of a lewd email Chung wrote about former Wellington mayor Tory Whanau.

When Chung narrowly scraped onto council, he was caught leaving his phone open to controversial social media identity Graham Bloxham for 40 minutes during a private meeting, meaning Bloxham was able to post about it in real time. Little accepted it was a mistake.

A leak in January put Independent Together under scrutiny for its declared spending.

A $40,000 donation Chung claimed in The Post mayoral debate was from Vlad Barbalich ‒ a property developer who bankrolled freedom party DemocracyNZ and now supports NZ First ‒ was nowhere to be seen in bank statements or declarations.