Outgoing Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau. Photo / Mark Mitchell.
Outgoing Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau says she would not wish the abuse she has faced in the mayoralty upon anyone, as she delivered her final speech as the capital’s mayor today.
Whanau thanked all of her council colleagues by name, but also took the opportunity to fire shots at those she deemed responsible for attacks against her.
It comes as she has also demanded change at her council after decades-old confidential material was revealed from files accidentally made public.
The top-secret documents are the subject of a privacy investigation after the council sold off the old mayoral desk at the dump, with thousands of pages of files still inside.
Among the files was an anonymous sexual harassment claim against a former councillor, misogynistic correspondence between councillors, and formal complaints by female staff against male councillors for abusive and harassing behaviour.
The revelations have led to the mayor saying “this behaviour cannot continue”.
“From my own experience, I have suffered abuse and harassment – particularly online – which I believe is due mainly to the fact that I’m a woman of colour,“ Whanau said.
“While the majority of this online abuse came from individuals and groups outside the council, it would seem some things internally have not changed.”
She pointed to a lewd email from councillor Ray Chung sent to other councillors in 2023 which detailed a false sexual rumour about Whanau, as well as an incident where councillor Nicola Young repeated another sexual rumour about Whanau in an online radio interview, as examples of the council’s problematic culture.
“Chung’s poor and unethical behaviour has not occurred in isolation; it has been enabled by other councillors, lobby groups and a few members of the media,” she said.
“We’re talking about a small percentage of elected people over a long period of time, and council staff, of which there were a large number”.’
Whanau today used her valedictory speech at council to call out some of the abuse she has experienced in her term as mayor.
“After experiencing it myself, and witnessing it with actually some of you as well, I wouldn’t wish that upon anyone”, she told councillors at her final council meeting.
Whanau has previously spoken out about the online abuse she has faced throughout her term, especially after she publicly revealed she had a drinking problem and was the subject of salacious rumours - even spread by her own councillors.
“These challenges became lessons, and I’ll be grateful as I take them forward, so to those who created those challenges, thank you,” Whanau said.
“Whether it was members around this very table feeding defamatory rumours to the media, whether it was some media reporting on defamatory rumours as fact, whether it was Better Wellington harassing our elected members, or members of Vision for Wellington lobbying government for intervention, even though they were supposedly apolitical, whether it’s previous mayors or elected members who criticise this council for high rates, even though it was their decisions and underinvestment who caused them, leaving us to pick up the bill.
“This Government, who’ve previously claimed to be about localism, but have instead dictated councils go back to basics while punching down on the rest of the country. Thank you.
“Because without those challenges, perhaps this council wouldn’t have delivered one of the most progressive and action-orientated plans it has ever seen.”
The 2000-odd pages of material contained some of the most sensitive council information to pass through the mayor’s office between the late 1980s and early 2000s, seemingly intentionally filed away in locked drawers for safekeeping.
The council continues to investigate the matter and has apologised to those whose confidential information has been leaked.
Ethan Manera is a Wellington-based journalist covering Wellington issues, local politics and business in the capital. He can be emailed at ethan.manera@nzme.co.nz.