Tory Whanau and Nicola Young (Image design: Gabi Lardies)
Tory Whanau and Nicola Young (Image design: Gabi Lardies)

OPINIONPoliticsNovember 30, 2023

Tory Whanau, Nicola Young and the rumour that overtook the story

Wellington editor
Tory Whanau and Nicola Young (Image design: Gabi Lardies)
Tory Whanau and Nicola Young (Image design: Gabi Lardies)

A genuine news story quickly became a springboard for rumour and speculation, with one councillor at the centre of it.

Wellington mayor Tory Whanau has a problem with alcohol. She has made that public and is clearly embarrassed. Whanau’s public behaviour was first called into question in July after reports of drunkenly not paying a restaurant bill.

Being drunk in public is not in itself a political scandal, but after the incident earlier this year, Whanau said she was going to “keep certain socialising to my home”. So the fact that she was drunk (again) at a popular Wellington bar two weeks ago is arguably a breach of public trust.

Whether or not Whanau is able to satisfactorily perform the duties of mayor is worth discussing as the city deals with major infrastructure projects, ballooning costs, broken pipes and more. But the story, which broke last night, quickly became much bigger than the mayor’s drinking, due to an accompanying rumour spread online, acknowledged by early news reports and amplified by a senior councillor.

Soon after the initial story broke on Wednesday night, a number of faceless Twitter accounts began speculating that there was more to the story, specifically that there was a video from that night at Havana bar which showed the mayor doing something much more scandalous than drinking till 1am. The speculation was helped by the mention of “footage” in RNZ’s initial report.

But what footage? We could find absolutely no evidence such footage exists. Every account posting on the subject seemed to have heard it was circulating on a different platform. Those on Twitter pointed to Discord or Reddit. Those on Reddit said they’d seen it on TikTok. Nothing could be found on TikTok. There was even a suggestion it was “doing the rounds at the Viaduct”, whatever that means. Both RNZ and Stuff have apparently not seen the video, despite reporting on its supposed existence.

Wellington mayor Tory Whanau

Whanau admits she was drunk in public at Havana Bar. But as for the rumoured incident that was supposedly filmed, she denies any such incident happened at all.

That did not stop Sean Plunket on The Platform this morning from running the entire rumour in extreme detail alongside an interview with fourth-term councillor Nicola Young.

“Nicola Young, councillor, is going to join us to talk about this later, but I just need to lay it out for you because mainstream media don’t want to tell you the story. They just want to protect the reputation of our addict mayor,” began the broadcast. Plunket then proceeded to describe, in specific detail, “the story”. The Spinoff’s editorial standards restrict the republishing of those details for both ethical and legal reasons. Plunket claimed to have his own sources for the explicit incident he outlined. More specifically, a video. Plunket had not seen the video himself but “I have heard from multiple sources in Wellington that that video is, if you like, doing the rounds”.

There are always rumours “doing the rounds” about politicians in New Zealand. Stories that could end the careers of hugely influential people if you could only get your hands on The Video or talk to The Source. Very few, if any, of those videos ever eventuate, but the rumours persist. Young will be well aware of this, having been an elected official for 10 years and coming from a political family – her father Bill and sister Annabel were both National MPs.

Wellington city councillor Nicola Young (Source: Facebook)

What is even rarer, though, is for even the existence of those rumours to be reported and included alongside known facts. That both RNZ and Stuff reported on a rumour is unusual (imagine all of the rumours we could report on!). In its breaking news story, RNZ reported that it had “learned of footage circulating and put the allegations to [Whanau’s] office”.

“Most councillors contacted by RNZ had heard the story and knew about the video in circulation, although none had seen the footage themselves and none would speak publicly,” the initial report read.

This certainly suggests there is a video to be seen, despite apparently no one having seen it. Plunket (and Young), however, went much further. After Plunket had completed his monologue on Whanau’s alleged activities (again, activities that no one has actually seen evidence of), he introduced Young on the phone and asked if she had seen this elusive video.

“I have not,” she said. “I have spoken to people about it, but I haven’t seen it.”

“The series of events as I described them, would that be what you have heard?”

“Pretty much. Yes. There are a few versions, but pretty much.”

Within 10 seconds, Young had both “confirmed” a rumour and acknowledged a slew of defamatory remarks against her colleague. “There are a few versions” is a hallmark of a rumour and yet Young has used that line to suggest that it is, in fact, true.

Towards the end of the interview, once again claiming a media coverup, Plunket asked: “Do you think the public need to know what went on?” Young responded, “I think people have got the rough idea, they don’t need to know any more. It’s all a bit tawdry.”

But people did not have a “rough idea” of “what went on” at all. They had heard a detailed and unverified rumour by Plunket, and heard Young largely endorse it.

Sean Plunket on The Platform this morning.

The Spinoff spoke to Young after her interview with Plunket. She again confirmed she had not seen the video, but when asked if she believed it existed, said: “I do, because one of the people who has seen it is a very respectable Wellingtonian.” Following the interview, The Spinoff asked for the name of the respected Wellingtonian but is yet to receive any response.

When asked if it was appropriate to give a radio interview about a rumoured video that she hadn’t seen, given how potentially defamatory it was, Young said, “Well, I was asked what I thought was in it.”

Does she regret doing the interview? “I don’t think I regret much in my life.”

Does she think all the statements she made in the discussion with Sean Plunket would stand up in court in a defamation action? “I’m not a lawyer.”

And is she confident it was all accurate? “As I said, I haven’t seen it. I just spoke about what I had heard.”

The Spinoff asked every Wellington city councillor whether they thought Tory Whanau should resign or stay on. Nicola Young was the only councillor who said she should step down. “Yes, she should resign – for her sake and the sake of Wellington,” Young said.

Tory Whanau has gone on the record about her drinking problem. Addiction is a difficult and deeply personal issue, but as mayor it is still an important story for the city and warrants scrutiny. There will likely be much more reporting on this story.

But going on Sean Plunket’s media platform and circulating unfounded, potentially defamatory and clearly harmful rumours about the mayor is an important story in its own right. For that, councillor Young warrants scrutiny, too.

‘Hutt Valley, Kāpiti, down to the south coast. Our Wellington coverage is powered by members.’
Joel MacManus
— Wellington editor
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Christopher Luxon and the rodeo guy. Original photograph: Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images
Christopher Luxon and the rodeo guy. Original photograph: Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images

OPINIONPoliticsNovember 30, 2023

Luxon honeymoon rained on by Peters and cigarettes

Editor-at-large
Christopher Luxon and the rodeo guy. Original photograph: Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images
Christopher Luxon and the rodeo guy. Original photograph: Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images

The freshly sworn-in prime minister was hoping not to spend his first few days stooped in a defensive crouch. 

Christopher Luxon doesn’t seem like the kind of fellow that is visited much by nightmares. But if he were, last night’s would situate him at the cabinet table, arranging his papers, looking down to see a carpet of soil, as the circular room transformed into a dusty, sepia arena, patrolled by a weathered, handsome man on a white horse – this is not our first rodeo. The dream would morph, as dreams do, into a weird, antique advertisement for cigarettes. Winston 20s, probably. 

As political honeymoons go, the Luxon government’s has been brutishly short. At the official unveiling of the coalition agreements last week, Luxon sounded like a chuffed CEO at an AGM. David Seymour sounded like the CFO. Winston Peters sounded like a comments thread. Instead of heralding the NZ First wins in policy or personnel, he chose to rail at the “mathematical morons” who had foolishly calculated the negotiation time from the election, rather than from the reveal of special votes, before launching into a slanging match with members of the press gallery.

Fast forward a few days to Monday and the next glittery setpiece, this time at Government House. Within minutes of the ceremony’s completion, the gravitas and glow were extinguished. The comments thread in a cowboy hat was back. Peters declared the media had been bribed by the Public Interest Journalism Fund and all but instructed the independent, state-owned broadcasters RNZ and TVNZ to stop using te reo. 

An actual old ad for Winston cigarettes.

The siege of thunder didn’t stop there. A day later, at the traditional, usually anodyne photo-op for the newly sworn cabinet, Peters, deputy prime minister (for another 548 days) and leader of the third biggest of three coalition parties, said to reporters: “Tell the public what you signed up to to get the money.” A minute earlier, Luxon had been asked about his new bedfellow’s “bribery” remarks. “Didn’t see those comments,” he said, preposterously. 

Luxon might not do nightmares but there’s no doubt he’s long dreamed about the day he might become prime minister. What he couldn’t have imagined was those hallowed moments being hijacked by a deputy and his deafening mix of mischief and high dudgeon. Who could then forgive him for thinking: I am done with this domestic obsession over Peters and his bluster; I wonder how my coronation is getting covered by the wiser, more measured international press?

Oh. 

From the BBC to CNN, from the FT to the New York Times, all they seemed interested in was the ditching of the smokefree target – a change demanded not by National but its coalition partners. There was, said Luxon of the coverage generally, a fair bit of “disingenuousness in how it’s been presented”. The boost to the tax coffers from more excise (and therefore more tobacco products being sold) was a “byproduct” not a “motivation” for a decision driven by concerns around black markets and making a small number of outlets a thief’s mecca. 

Luxon made those remarks at his post-cabinet press conference late yesterday afternoon. It was another important first for the new PM, at that familiar podium. Given the clouds that had gathered so quickly over his early-days parade, which in the Beehive theatrette took the form of half a dozen questions from reporters about the smokefree reversal and a full dozen about the statements by Winston Peters, he managed capably. 

“Winston is allowed to make his remarks in the way that he chooses,” said Luxon. “He may not express it in the way that I would do it, but, honestly, we have serious challenges in this country and we are focused on those things.” That was a marked improvement, certainly, on the “didn’t see those comments” of a day earlier, which had an echo of the position just a couple of months ago, when Luxon professed of Peters, “I don’t know him.” 

He knows him now, and he has decided that the best tactic is to seek to brush it off. After all, as another cowboy maxim goes: always drink upstream from the herd. The risk, however, is that by refusing to repudiate so much as a speck of Peters’ conspiracy-friendly hyperbole, he gives both coalition parties a dangerously long leash, especially on a day when he had, he noted, “laid out my expectations of ministers”. It won’t be long before those expectations are tested again, probably by Mr Rodeo himself.

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For now, Luxon wants to move swiftly on from the dance of the upstaging deputy and the outcry over the abandonment of the smoking ban, and direct attention to the refreshed 100-day plan agreed by the coalition and unveiled yesterday. It’s an ambitious programme, as is clear not just because Luxon called it ambitious seven times at yesterday’s presser. 

That’s no simple task. The 1News 6pm bulletin, for example, included in its lead item last night not an examination of that 100-day plan but a graphic breakdown of the Public Interest Journalism Fund, a flawed but largely exhausted and defunct initiative. National’s other challenge is one that, funnily enough, Chris Hipkins faced not long ago. It’s all very well enumerating the things that are going into the firepit. But what is new? New ideas? New projects? The sooner National is talking less about binning Labour’s laws and more about its constructive plans – on gangs, for example; in classrooms; and especially on infrastructure – the better. 

As the 54th parliament sits for the first time next week and the more expansive programme is laid out in the speech from the throne, that is the stuff Luxon is desperate to get cracking with and take questions on – a world away from the defensive crouch in which he was stuck last night, just a couple of days after being sworn in, and in large part thanks to his new deputy. As far as the international coverage is concerned, however, don’t expect miracles. Best of luck to the new climate change minister, Simon Watts, as he jets off to Dubai and Cop28 with the news that New Zealand will soon be back open to the pursuit of offshore gas and oil exploration.

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