{"id":178584,"date":"2025-12-11T07:06:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T07:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/178584\/"},"modified":"2025-12-11T07:06:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T07:06:08","slug":"wellington-mayor-andrew-littles-financial-backers-revealed-electoral-officer-queries-ray-chungs-funding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/178584\/","title":{"rendered":"Wellington Mayor Andrew Little\u2019s financial backers revealed, electoral officer queries Ray Chung\u2019s funding"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Maritime Union, Amalgamated Workers Union, E T\u016b Union, and Dairy Workers Union each gave Little $5000 towards his campaign.<\/p>\n

Little also received $2075 from a 20-person fundraising dinner hosted by former mayor Justin Lester and $1634.15 from a 145-person Labour Party fundraiser.<\/p>\n

The mayor spent just short of the threshold at $58,990.26, largely on signs around the city, Facebook advertising and flyers.<\/p>\n

Mayoral candidates in the capital are allowed to spend a maximum of $60,000 on their campaigns during the three months leading up to local body elections.<\/p>\n

All other donations he received were below the $1500 threshold for public declaration.<\/p>\n

Little won the mayoralty in a landslide victory, beating business owner Karl Tiefenbacher and councillors Chung and Diane Calvert.<\/p>\n

Chung\u2019s donations<\/p>\n

Chung, who ran a controversial <\/a>campaign, earlier said he had received between $150,000 and $200,000 in donations through his campaign group Independent Together<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Chung received $10,000 from heritage advocate Felicity Wong and $5000 from investment management company The Thorndon Group, which is owned by businessman Wayne Coffey.<\/p>\n

Some $27,542.17 was given to Chung from Better Wellington, Independent Together\u2019s parent organisation, but was paid back to the group for advertising, website and event costs.<\/p>\n

The Better Wellington funding has prompted questions after it was listed as a \u201cgrouped donation\u201d rather than stating who donated to the organisation, which was set up to run candidates. <\/p>\n

The Local Electoral Act states donors who give more than $1500 cannot be hidden by grouping them with other donations.<\/p>\n

All candidates on the Independent Together ticket declared a grouped donation from Better Wellington.<\/p>\n

The returns have caught the attention of Electoral Officer Warwick Lampp, who said he has queried them with Better Wellington and the group has assured him it will file a list of donors who gave more than $1500 in the coming days.<\/p>\n

\"DonationsDonations received by Wellington City councillor Ray Chung for his mayoral campaign are under scrutiny. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell<\/p>\n

Chung previously said he received about $20,000 from wealthy philanthropist backer Sir Mark Dunajtschik<\/a>, but lost his support after the release of an email the councillor wrote about Tory Whanau, spreading a salacious sex and drugs rumour about the former mayor<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Dunajtschik<\/a> condemned Chung\u2019s \u201cdirty politics\u201d that led to a number of candidates tied to Chung quitting the Independent Together ticket<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Other candidates\u2019 donations<\/p>\n

Tiefenbacher, who placed second for the mayoralty but won a council seat, spent $50,617 on his campaign.<\/p>\n

He was backed by Aaron Leech, the general manager of the late Sir Bob Jones\u2019 property business Robt. Jones Holdings, to the tune of $2980.<\/p>\n

Local grocer Moore Wilsons also gave Tiefenbacher $2000.<\/p>\n

Diane Calvert, who was re-elected in the Wharangi Onslow-Western ward but came fifth in the mayoralty race, spent just over $16,000 on her campaign.<\/p>\n

Her only donation above the $1500 threshold came from Paul Robinson of The Woolstore shopping centre on Thorndon Quay, who gave $2000. <\/p>\n

Ethan Manera<\/a> 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Maritime Union, Amalgamated Workers Union, E T\u016b Union, and Dairy Workers Union each gave Little $5000 towards…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":178585,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[20251,113013,1558,114138,114137,26519,40924,30271,1644,738,305,42,46323,15143,83032,10934,3025,43,10932,94393,22393,12860,5348,544,40,38,41,39,17451,52,15900],"class_list":["post-178584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-andrew","tag-backers","tag-been","tag-capitals","tag-chungs","tag-councillors","tag-electoral","tag-figures","tag-financial","tag-funding","tag-have","tag-headlines","tag-influential","tag-lineup","tag-littles","tag-mayor","tag-most","tag-news","tag-officer","tag-queries","tag-ray","tag-revealed","tag-showing","tag-some","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-wealthiest","tag-wellington","tag-wellingtons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178584\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}