Dunedin councillor Benedict Ong fourth conduct complaint, Digi Mart USA News (Dunedin, New Zealand): Dunedin city councillor Benedict Ong is facing a fourth code of conduct complaint over his social media posts.
The embattled first-term councillor has been formally advised of a fresh complaint relating to Facebook posts he made this month about Dunedin City Council subsidiary City Forests Limited. In correspondence sent to media by Ong, council chief executive Richard Briggs said he had lodged the complaint under the council’s Code of Conduct, with independent investigator Jordan Boyle appointed to undertake a preliminary assessment.
The complaint concerns Ong’s public commentary about City Forests, the mayor, other elected members, and a council-engaged adviser and his firm. An independent investigation will determine whether Ong has breached the code, with the council declining further comment until the process is completed.
Ong rejected the complaint, accusing Mayor Sophie Barker and other elected members of using ratepayers’ money to launch politically motivated attacks against him. “This is a repeat of the weaponising by the sole authority of the mayor and her closest elected member proxies to use our community’s money undisclosed and privately on private investigators, external lawyers and consultants to launch further malicious false attacks against me,” he wrote.
This month Briggs demanded Ong retract his claims about the forestry company, stating there was no proposal, resolution or work underway to sell it. Ong refused to back down, claiming his intervention had prevented the sale of public assets.
The latest complaint follows three previous findings that Ong breached the council’s Code of Conduct, including over the disclosure of confidential information. He has previously been suspended from council committees and subcommittees following investigations into his conduct.
Separately, Ong has confirmed he will no longer honour his pledge to resign from the council on December 31. Instead, he intends to remain a councillor until October 2027, and stand for election again in 2028. Ong blamed fellow councillor Andrew Simms for changing plans for a proposed referendum on Dunedin’s voting system, which he claimed could have coincided with a byelection triggered by his resignation.
“Since Councillor Simms changed this thereafter in reaction to me, I have changed my resignation to October 2027,” he told the Herald. He claimed resigning within 12 months of the next local elections would eliminate the need for a byelection and its associated costs.
The reversal comes days after Ong’s unsuccessful bid for Parliament. Standing as an independent in the Dunedin electorate at Saturday’s general election, Ong secured just 265 votes, about 0.8% of valid candidate votes.
He finished seventh out of eight candidates, according to preliminary Electoral Commission results.
Despite his unsuccessful parliamentary campaign and multiple conduct complaints, Ong has made clear he intends to remain involved in local politics. “I intend to restand for Dunedin City Council thereafter in 2028,” he said.
In a further statement to the Herald, Ong declared he would abandon plans to seek re-election to the council in 2028 if he failed to secure a record number of votes for an independent candidate in Dunedin. “I am confident that post 27 November I will receive a record number of total votes for an independent candidate in Dunedin electorate’s modern political history after special votes are in,” he said.
“If this is not so, I commit I will not restand again for Dunedin City Council elections in 2028.”
Electoral Commission records show independent candidate Jim O’Malley received 1272 votes in Dunedin at the 2023 general election, more than four times Ong’s preliminary tally of 265. Ong would need at least a further 1008 votes in the official count to surpass O’Malley’s result. The Electoral Commission is expected to release the official election results, including special votes, on November 27.
