Ray Chung: Wellington City Councillor on sending his Tory Whanau sex gossip email

Embattled Wellington mayoral candidate Ray Chung is refusing to pull out of the race, despite being ditched by a major financial backer.  

It comes after the Herald revealed Chung sent emails detailing an unsavoury sexual rumour about Mayor Tory Whanau – rumours she's categorically denied.  

The scandal has led to high-profile Wellington philanthropist Sir Mark Dunajtschik withdrawing his support for Chung’s campaign. 

Despite this, Chung told Ryan Bridge empathically he's not backing out of the race, saying that's absolutely not his plan. 

He’s also accusing one of the three colleagues he sent the email to of leaking it to Whanau. 

He says he can't say for sure who it was... but says he could have a guess.  

Chung would not, however say which of the three he was accusing of the leak. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good evening at a seven after five. We'll get to
the Nelson Tasman Civil Defense Controllers shortly. First, Wellington Councilor
Raychung's menoral campaigners in tatters this afternoon. One of his
key backers this is Mark de Naichick. He's formally withdrawn
his public support after today's email scandal. If you're just
catching up, it was revealed this morning Counselor Chung spread

(00:21):
gossip about Tory Farno. This was in an email to
other Wellington counselors in twenty twenty three. In it, he
claimed Tory had quote drug fueled tempestuous sex and made
references to her having pendulous soft breasts. This was reported
to him, apparently by a friend and neighbor. She categorically

(00:42):
denies this, and Rag Chang is with me.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Now, Hi Ray, Hi Ryan. How are you going?

Speaker 1 (00:46):
Yeah? Good? Thanks? How are you going?

Speaker 2 (00:49):
Oh it's been a very hard couple of days.

Speaker 1 (00:52):
Yeah as it?

Speaker 2 (00:53):
Oh yep, certainly not over yet.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
Do you think you'll pull out of the race?

Speaker 2 (00:59):
No? No, no, I no, not at all.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
You lost your big donor, right.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
I haven't actually spoken to him yet, but that's what
I've That's what I've been told by by who actually
told me, uh, Ethan Mania from from the Herald? Yeah,
yeah right.

Speaker 1 (01:22):
What's that worth to you?

Speaker 2 (01:25):
Oh? A lot? But but most of all, it's.

Speaker 1 (01:27):
Like hundreds of the money, hundreds of thousands or teens
of thousands.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
Well, well, it's not the it's not the money, it's
the fact that he no, but he may lose faith
in me. So so I need to Yeah, so that
that's more important.

Speaker 1 (01:42):
And he hasn't even he hasn't even spoken to you
directly yet.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
No, no, he hasn't yet. So yeah, no, I I've
been on I've been on the phone since four o'clock
this morning, so I even a chance to talk to me,
And and Ethan just told me, so I need to
talk to him.

Speaker 1 (01:57):
So, Ray, can you just tell me in your own words?
You wrap for a walk and they but tells you
a story. What's the story they tell you?

Speaker 2 (02:04):
It told me a story about about oh, his son
was down at the pub, went down to the pub
as they saw young young kids, and and these two
women came up to them, and and one of them
grabbed grabbing one's a bum and said, you know, you know,

(02:24):
propossessioned him, and and so then you know, one thing
led to another, and he went through what happened and so, yeah,
so told me about Then I was quite you know,
well I don't know what I thought, whether flebbergasted or
as sounded or something, and so so I didn't know
what to actually do with this information because so.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
This is what So did they use the words tempestuous
sex or is that? Was that your words?

Speaker 2 (02:53):
I think they used that those words. I didn't I
didn't have anything, you know, I didn't add anything. So
I just took down. I just noted what they actually.

Speaker 1 (03:01):
Right, So the neighbors said pendulous soft breasts as well?

Speaker 2 (03:05):
Yeah, well yeah, okay, or the information what happened was
it gave me the end. He told me about it.
Then I came back and I thought, well what do
I do with that? I was walking with someone else
than we're walking dogs, and so you know, we both
listened to this, and so I thought, well, what do
I do with this?

Speaker 1 (03:23):
And what do you mean? What you do we do
with it? You me all this information, well you might
have a chuckle, do you email your colleagues?

Speaker 2 (03:32):
Well, I didn't know what I found was. This is
six weeks into council six weeks and being there, and
the council operates very, very differently to any organization. So
I wanted some advice from someone. Tod been there a
bit longer, and so do it. I mean, this is
you know, it is you know, an issue, and it's

(03:53):
it affects the reputation of the city. So you know
how many people actually know about this? What what should
actually happen?

Speaker 1 (04:00):
So is that what you asked? You asked in the email,
you said, I want some advice on what I should
do with this.

Speaker 2 (04:07):
No, I told them, no, you didn't remember that.

Speaker 1 (04:09):
You didn't. You just told them a dirty story you
heard from a man in the street, like it was
a bit of a laugh.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
I mean, come on, well, it wasn't a man in
the street. It was someone who were benigned for many
a long time.

Speaker 1 (04:21):
And so so you believe this is true. You believe
she had a drug fueled orgy.

Speaker 2 (04:28):
I don't see why he should actually tell me these
things without being some substance behind it, because he wasn't
to know that I was actually going to walk past
this house, and so it wasn't as like he'd prepared
a story I know.

Speaker 1 (04:40):
But he also wasn't their ray he was. He wasn't
at the orgy either, you know, so it's third hand
orgy information at this point.

Speaker 2 (04:50):
Yeah, yeah, so yes.

Speaker 1 (04:51):
So do you think it was smart to put it
in the email?

Speaker 2 (04:55):
Well, I wanted to ask I just I didn't want
to add anything to it, so I just put in
what he actually told me. And so that's what I
wanted to ask him. And I think that it was
a private email that I sent her three of my
colleagues who I've known for a lot longer than being
in council too, you know, and get their opinion.

Speaker 1 (05:14):
On it, and to who's that was it their counsel
email or personal email? Personal email, personal emails? How do
you think Torri Farno got her hands on it, because
that's how it's wound up in the media today, right, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (05:26):
One one of them, one of those three gave it
to her.

Speaker 1 (05:29):
Which one.

Speaker 2 (05:33):
I don't know for sure, but you know, I can guess.

Speaker 1 (05:38):
What's your guess?

Speaker 2 (05:39):
Well, I don't want to I don't want to say
that if I'm just guessing because I don't have I
don't have any.

Speaker 1 (05:44):
Well that's sort but can you see that's sort of
what you did with Tori?

Speaker 2 (05:50):
Hm, what you mean in the email.

Speaker 1 (05:53):
Yeah, you didn't know, but you guessed.

Speaker 2 (05:57):
Well, I guess, and that's why I passed it on
to them to see what they thought. I don't think
any of us actually new Torri because you know, we
were all new to her, and so I think that
it was very difficult for us to even have any opinion.
And so right, yeah, so.

Speaker 1 (06:15):
You ever had any drugs or done on the orgy's
Ray never said would you would you like to have?

Speaker 2 (06:25):
Well, the opportunity has never been there, so I've I've
never been interested in taking drugs, so obviously haven't taken
hear of those.

Speaker 1 (06:33):
Okay, all right, Ray, Well, good luck with your campaign.

Speaker 2 (06:36):
Yep, thank you.

Speaker 1 (06:37):
That's raid showing Wellington. Meryl hopeful for more from Hither
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