{"id":644939,"date":"2026-10-29T15:22:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T15:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/644939\/"},"modified":"2026-10-29T15:22:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T15:22:09","slug":"dunedin-councillor-found-to-breach-code-of-conduct-for-a-third-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/644939\/","title":{"rendered":"Dunedin councillor found to breach code of conduct for a third time"},"content":{"rendered":"

Controversial Dunedin councillor Benedict Ong has been found to have breached the code of conduct for a third time.<\/p>\n

Ong has already been suspended from some duties and been asked to resign following two upheld complaints over his behaviour.<\/p>\n

In June, deputy mayor Cherry Lucas complained, alleging he had publicly posted confidential information and criticised the council’s chief executive on social media.<\/p>\n

The Dunedin City Council met behind closed doors on Thursday to discuss the complaint.<\/p>\n

Councillor Andrew Simms, who chaired the item, said the council accepted the findings that he had materially breached the code in a public and deliberate manner.<\/p>\n

Simms said he had been suspended from all council committees and subcommittees for nine months until July 2027.<\/p>\n

He received a similar nine-month suspension in May after an independent report found he was likely deliberately and repeatedly leaking information that could potentially jeopardise the council’s commercial interests.<\/p>\n

Benedict Ong faced a code of conduct complaint. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

The suspension was not expected to affect him for long.<\/p>\n

Last month, he announced plans to stand as an independent candidate<\/a> in the Dunedin electorate.<\/p>\n

He has since confirmed on social media that he would resign on December 31 regardless of whether his tilt was successful.<\/p>\n

This was at odds with his previous declarations that he would never resign after his colleagues asked him to in the wake of the first code of conduct complaint.<\/p>\n

“It’s becoming a clich\u00e9 \u2013 never. I have been asked many times, I’m going to be asked again. I think it’s just too clich\u00e9d. I should have t-shirt that just says ‘never’,” he told media at the time.<\/p>\n

Ong has been embroiled in controversy since he was elected, including being trespassed from the University of Otago grounds and buildings following student complaints about inappropriate and unwanted behaviour.<\/p>\n

Ong has claimed he has been subject to “false, malicious co-ordinated political attacks” since he was elected last October.<\/p>\n

He posted on social media that this had made his ongoing public role as a councillor “untenable to hold”.<\/p>\n

Andrew Simms said the suspension did not impact Ong’s attendance at full council meetings.<\/p>\n

“The independent report itself will be kept confidential,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Controversial Dunedin councillor Benedict Ong has been found to have breached the code of conduct for a third…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":644940,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1080,111,43,139,69,135],"class_list":["post-644939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-dunedin-otago","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644939","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=644939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/644940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=644939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=644939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=644939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}