Dunedin councillor removed after refusing order over mayoral post

Summarised by Centrist

Dunedin councillor Benedict Ong has again been escorted from a council meeting, this time after refusing an instruction connected with a Facebook post directed at Mayor Sophie Barker.

The first-term councillor was warned that colleagues were “running out of patience” before security removed him from Wednesday’s meeting.

A point of order concerning Ong’s conduct had been upheld. He was then directed to remove the offending social-media post, but the dispute escalated until security was called.

The incident is not an isolated one. Ong has previously attracted attention for placing tape over his mouth, reading Franz Kafka during a council meeting, leaking confidential information and becoming the subject of code-of-conduct complaints. He has also been removed from meetings before.

Editor’s note: The post at the centre of the dispute called Barker “far-wrong” and accused her of repeatedly denying Ong his right to ask questions. Ong removed the description but did not delete the post or apologise as directed, and was subsequently escorted from the meeting. At the time of publishing, his edited post is still visible on Facebook.

Read more at Stuff

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