Meg Gianna, a Wellington resident, has publicly condemned Northern Ward Councillor Ben McNulty for appearing to endorse the doxing of her own children and employing bullying tactics during a heated online dispute over local politics, raising serious questions about his conduct as an elected official.

The controversy erupted earlier this week when Gianna shared a brief video clip from a Johnsonville public candidate meeting in a two community Facebook groups totalling 24,000 members.

The clip featured a question directed at incumbent Councillor John Apanowicz, challenging his full-time employment elsewhere and perceived lack of engagement, with the questioner stating,

“When you have done so little for us.”

Gianna explained that she and her husband missed in-person debates and were reviewing recordings to inform their voting decisions. Having supported Apanowicz in the previous election, she posted the snippet with a link and timestamp to the full discussion.

The post quickly drew ire from Apanowicz’s defenders, who accused Gianna of being part of a rival campaign team and raised claims of misogyny.

The situation escalated when one commenter doxed personal images from Gianna’s Facebook profile, including photographs of her young children, and shared them in the group. The doxer also posted a 2022 photo of a neighbour’s sign supporting independent candidate Ray Chung, attempting to tie Gianna to Chung’s campaign.

Gianna clarified that while she and her husband know Chung personally and have volunteered casually—such as distributing flyers during school holidays—they are not formally affiliated with his campaign.

Instead of de-escalating as a councillor might be expected to do, McNulty, using his official Wellington City Council Facebook profile, joined the attack. He commented directly on the doxed post featuring Gianna’s children’s images, stating: “Ray even thanks her in the comments on this one for campaigning for him. This post is a good old fashioned attempt at astroturfing.” This response not only dismissed Gianna’s claim of neutrality but amplified the doxing, putting her children’s privacy at further risk.

The harassment intensified when another user suggested crossposting the doxed images to a second group, Open Johnsonville. McNulty then liked the doxed comment in that forum as well.

Despite repeated requests from Gianna and her husband to remove their children’s photos, the doxer refused, and the online vitriol continued late into the night.

At around midnight, McNulty screenshot a post from Gianna’s husband’s personal profile—where he accused the councillor of endorsing doxing—and shared it in the group with a mocking caption: “lol they are now accusing me of endorsing doxing.”

The exchange persisted until 12:51am, when McNulty deleted some of his comments and issued an apology. However, he undermined it by blaming Gianna for portraying herself as politically neutral and suggesting she was “ok with it all” because her profile was not locked. He further claimed, without evidence, that she was linked to past doxing of his own children—an accusation Gianna strongly denies.

More concerningly, McNulty admitted to reporting Gianna’s original post to Facebook, despite knowing the doxed images had been removed by the perpetrator between 11:37pm and 12:30am. This led to Gianna’s post being taken down by morning, effectively stifling discussion about Apanowicz’s record.

Gianna questions whether McNulty’s report was a calculated move to protect his colleague or shield his own reputation, rather than addressing the harassment she faced—including from him.

McNulty’s actions—siding with doxers, mocking victims, and using his authority to suppress a constituent’s post—represent a troubling use of bullying tactics by a public official. Critics argue this prioritises political allegiance over the safety of children in his ward and the right to free expression.

Adding to the alarming behaviour, and similar to fellow Leftwing politician Andrew Little’s bullying display to a female staffer recently, Mr McNulty displayed another outburst at a recent Meet the Candidates event in Johnsonville:

Gianna notes that even supporters on McNulty’s political page have urged him to abandon such “dirty politics.”

The incident highlights broader concerns about how elected officials engage on social media, particularly during election periods when tensions run high. Gianna, using McNulty’s public council profile as grounds for naming him, calls for accountability, while withholding other participants’ names to avoid further backlash.

Mr McNulty has attempted to engage in damage-control, putting out the following post. Commentators on the post have called out McNulty himself, describing the incumbent’s allegations as ‘baseless lies’, ‘gaslighting’, ‘victimhood mentality’, etc.

Wellington City Council has yet to respond to the allegations, leaving residents to question whether such conduct aligns with the standards expected of a councillor.