An email has emerged in which Mayoral hopeful Ray Chung has falsely described current Mayor Tory Whanau as a participant in a drugs and sex romp.
An email has emerged in which Wellington councillor and mayoral hopeful Ray Chung describes a New Year’s Eve drugs and sex orgy involving incumbent mayor Tory Whanau that she flatly denies ever happened.
Chung, who wants to become rel="" title="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/tory-whanau-bows-out-of-wellington-mayoral-race/TP2UM5F7XVFK7PABDVSBPPFG5M/">Wellington’s mayor in the upcoming local body election, wrote of Whanau in explicit terms having drug-fuelled “tempestuous sex” and making reference to her having “pendulous soft breasts”.
Whanau told the Herald the email contents are false and that she celebrated New Year’s Eve 2022 with ambassadors from the diplomatic corps and attended a rainbow community celebration.
Whanau said the email is an example of the “dehumanising” personal attacks she has experienced during her term as Wellington’s mayor - and part of the reason she is not running for the mayoralty again.
She said: “I personally do not think [Chung] is fit for the mayoralty based on this email and other public comments he has made other the past few months.”
She said those comments included Chung saying she was “full of s***” in a Newstalk ZB interview.
“This sort of behaviour is unbecoming for a public official. It’s creepy. It’s gross. If he’s going to stay in the mayoral race, he needs to commit to a clean campaign.”
Whanau, who wants to be elected as a councillor but not mayor this election, provided the email to the Herald, saying she wanted voters to see evidence of the abuse she and other female politicians endured.
Chung has confirmed to the Herald he wrote the email and had no idea if the contents were true.
He said he did no fact-checking but found it “interesting” and thought his fellow councillors would agree.
He said it was a story he had heard from a neighbour while walking his dog and he intends to apologise to Whanau for passing it on.
“I passed on exactly what I was told. I would call it gossip.”
Wellington mayoral contender Andrew Little told the Herald: “This is unacceptable behaviour and if elected Mayor I would have zero tolerance for it.”
This sort of behaviour is unbecoming for a public official. It’s creepy. It’s gross.
The email header detail shows Chung sent the 257-word email to three other councillors on January 6, 2023. The Herald checked the email address with Chung and he confirmed it was from the company he worked for at the time.
The councillors who received his email were Tony Randle, Nicola Young and John Apanowicz.
The email’s subject line read: “A sordid night on the town”.
In the body text Chung wrote: “Hi folks, I was told to keep this under your cap otherwise it could lead to a ‘code of conduct charge!’ So please keep it to yourself as I’m sure it’ll be well-known with so many people knowing!”
I passed on exactly what I was told. I would call it gossip.
The email described a neighbour’s son and friend’s “pub crawl” during which they “did what all young boys do, drink and chat up women”.
It continued that “a couple of women came up and groped their butts” with one inviting him home for “a night of sex to beat any night you’ve ever experienced”.
The email said the group of four continued drinking until the women “talked about having some drugs at home that would really cap off their night and welcome in the New Year!”.
While Chung’s email isn’t specific about the day on which the claimed event occurred, the previous Saturday night was New Year’s Eve.
He wrote “it came to pass that this is what they did”, saying the group had “a night of debauchery to be remembered”.
“They described some of the more physical attributes of this woman including her pendulous soft breasts!”
Chung’s email said when a “bout of tempestuous sex” had finished, the young man asked the woman what she did for a living.
The reply stated in Chung’s email was: “Don’t you know who I am? I’m the mayor of Wellington!”
Whanau told the Herald she had celebrated with “a number of ambassadors” that New Year, then attended a rainbow community party.
“[The] rumour is completely false but it’s not dissimilar to other rumours which have been created over this term.
“It’s personal attacks, and they’re designed to dehumanise, to wear people like me down and hope that I won’t - and people like me won’t - stand for election again.”
Whanau said the email sent by Chung was “dirty politics”.
“It’s this kind of hyper-sexualisation…I’ve ignored [it] this term because I just wanted to stay focused on the city.
“However, we’re coming to a local election [and] I’m now wanting to talk about this sort of behaviour because the public needs to know who is running for public office, who will represent them and how damaging this can be for democracy.”
Whanau said her message to Chung was “you cannot talk about people like this”.
Chung said it was his understanding the events took place on New Year’s Eve.
When told Whanau had evidence she was with a group of ambassadors on New Year’s Eve, he said: “Well I don’t know which night it was I was just told it was New Year’s.”
Asked if he remembered using the term “pendulous soft breasts” in reference to Whanau, he said: “I have never been that close to her body to actually notice.”
Asked whether it was an appropriate term to use, he said: “Did I say that?”
When that section of his email was read to him, Chung said “I was relating what was told to me as it was told to me so it wasn’t my description of it.
“I’m describing what I was told because obviously I wasn’t there.”
Asked if was appropriate to describe a work colleague as having “pendulous soft breasts”, Chung said: “I’ve actually never known anyone with pendulous soft breasts so I don’t think I would ever use that to describe anyone, no.”
Asked if he would apologise to Whanau, he said: “It was never intended to go actually to her.” When pushed on this, he said he would apologise.
Chung said he accepted Whanau’s claim she had been subjected to sexualised harassment but did not accept his email was part of that.
“I’m not sexualising her or treating her like she’s a sexual object or anything.”
Chung said female voters should not be concerned about the email and it did not impact on his suitability to be mayor.
The Herald approached all three councillors sent Chung’s email.
Councillor Young said she remembered the email, which she deleted. “I told Ray it was an unwise and tawdry email,” she told the Herald.
Councillor Randle said he could not recall the email but did recall the story about Whanau. He said Whanau had been subject to much innuendo and rumour during her term as mayor.
“People should be held accountable and in the end you stand as a person whose intentions and character are judged every three years.”
Randle said he did not believe the email ruled Chung out of the mayoral race. He said it did show why it was important to not write some things down.
Randle said he took no action when Chung passed on the rumour. “I don’t think what Ray did was right. In terms of what I did about it, I can’t go around being a nanny for other people who are grown-ups. I believe in free speech.”
Councillor Apanowicz said he could not recall receiving the email but “it sounds pretty bad”.
“I hear this stuff all the time about Tory and it really upsets me. There are boundaries you should have with your colleagues and you should respect the office holders who are elected.”
In late 2023 Whanau was subjected to similar innuendo after a night of drunkenness at Wellington’s Havana Bar was followed by rumours a video existed in which she had committed a lewd act.
No video ever emerged, nor did anyone who claimed to have seen it. Whanau said the rumour still emerged online even though there were 10 witnesses and a bar manager who said it was false.
She told the Herald such abuse impacted on the mental health of the politicians targeted and was one of the reasons she was stepping out of the high-profile mayoral role and seeking re-election as a councillor.
Whanau has received briefings from social media analyst Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa analysing online commentary about her, including his analysis that gendered abuse directed towards her reflected a “broader pattern of abuse faced by female politicians in New Zealand”.
His report - the research for which did not include Chung’s email - found repeated examples of sexualised attacks and rumour involving Whanau that he said sought to “degrade her through sexual humiliation”.
In the email to the three councillors dated January 6 2023, Chung wrote:
“Hi folks, I was told to keep this under your cap otherwise it could lead to a ‘code of conduct charge!’. So please keep it to yourself as I’m sure it’ll be well-known with so many people knowing! Cheers, Ray.”
The full email, dated the day earlier, said:
“Hey Folks, Despite the drizzle this morning, I still took my dogs for a walk this morning and on the way back, bumped into one of my neighbours who stopped for a chat. He mentioned that his son and his friend went to do a pub crawl last week and while there, did what all young boys do, drink and chat up women.
“But often it’s the women who do make the advances and in this case, a couple of women came up and groped their butts with one saying to him, ‘if you come home with me tonight, I could give you a night of sex to beat any night you’ve ever experienced’.
“They chatted for a bit longer and drank some more and the women talked about having some drugs at home that would really cap off their night and welcome in the New Year!”
“So it came to pass that this is what they did and they really did have a night of debauchery to be remembered. They described some of the more physical attributes of this woman including her pendulous soft breasts!
“So why do I think that you might be interested in reading about these young buck’s (sic) adventures?
“Well, after they finished a bout of tempestuous sex, they lay back and he asked her what she did and she replied, ‘Don’t you know who I am? I’m the mayor of Wellington!” So he said, “No really, what do you do?” So she showed him on her phone that she really was!"
David Fisher is based in Northland and has worked as a journalist for more than 30 years, winning multiple journalism awards including being twice named Reporter of the Year and being selected as one of a small number of Wolfson Press Fellows to Wolfson College, Cambridge. He joined the Herald in 2004.
Sign up to The Daily H, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.