Call for tougher sanctions on misbehaving councillors
Wednesday, 15 July 2026
Wellington deputy mayor Ben McNulty is floating the idea for a law change to give councillors “teeth” to deal with wayward councillors.
He has support from mayor Andrew Little, who says mayors and chair people “must have the ability to act” when behaviour becomes bad enough.
McNulty highlighted the current stand-off between the Dunedin City Council and its councillor Benedict Ong, currently suspended from all committees and subcommittees after posting confidential information on social media. He is now under another investigation, again for allegedly passing on confidential information.
But sitting just metres away from McNulty as he made his case to a council workshop late last week was Ray Chung ‒ a Wellington City councillor often in hot water, most recently for allegedly sharing “misinformation” and making a “nuisance” of himself in a search for a man, later found dead.
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Chung, who lost a committee chairperson position as a result, denies wrongdoing. He has also found himself offside with a top Wellington police officer for his statements about the incident.
McNulty told The Post councils now had a “ gigantic gulf” between “wet bus ticket” responses, such as removing chair people from positions, to the most extreme, when councillors could be removed if found guilty of a crime punishable by two or more years in jail.
His proposal came amid a session on potential council amalgamation,which would need a Government legislation change. McNulty suggested “boutique” powers as part of that change to create “enforceability”.
“If you have councillors that are basically leaking sensitive information fragrantly and repeatedly, there's some teeth […] to actually deal with these kinds of almost existential threats to democracy,” he said.
Chung previously drew criticism after leaving a phone line open during a private training session with a controversial online personality, who live-posted the exchange. Chung said it was a mistake.
Local Government Minister Simon Watts said councillors were already expected to follow their councils’ codes of conduct and standing orders. Some had talked about “more effective sanctions” but that would be a major change.
“There are potentially significant legal and democratic implications which must be worked through before any changes can be made,” he said.
He was not planning any of the required legislative change in the Head Start legislation, for amalgamations, but consistent rules were needed across all councils, he said.
Legislation working its way through Parliament, would establish a standard code of conduct for councils.
Officials at the coming Ministry for Cities, Environment, Regions and Transport had been investigating options for code of conduct sanctions but no decisions had yet been made, he said.
Little said he would never contemplate powers for mayors of chair people to “unilaterally” remove a democratically-elected members as that was up to voters.
“However, in cases where there is a sustained and demonstrated failure to comply with rules and regulations, such as leaking sensitive documents, a mayor or chair must have the power to withhold information to protect the functioning of the council organisation,” he said.
“The threshold for such action needs to be very high, but at some point the mayor or chair must have the ability to act.”
Chung and Ong were approached for comment.