A member of New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s staff has resigned after being accused of secretly taking photos and videos of women, and recording audio of sex workers.
Michael Forbes, Luxon’s deputy chief press secretary, offered his “sincerest apologies to the women I have harmed”.
The allegations came to light after a sex worker said she noticed that Forbes’ phone had been recording audio while he was in the shower, local news website Stuff reported earlier this week.
His phone was later found to contain more photos and videos of women as well as audio recordings of his sexual encounters.
There were images of women at the gym and in the supermarket, Stuff NZ reported, as well as four videos of women in their homes, with the footage apparently taken from a window.
Luxon said Forbes’ case came as an “absolute shock” and that he had “zero tolerance for any behaviour that makes women or anyone feel unsafe”.
“My sympathy is with the women who raised these allegations and who were made to feel unsafe due to the actions of this person,” he said on Thursday, a day after Forbes resigned.
Luxon, along with other political leaders, have signalled an openness to changing privacy laws to better protect targets of voyeurism.
Police said they received a complaint from a Wellington brothel last July about photos found on a client’s phone, but ultimately decided the case did not meet the threshold for prosecution.
According to the Stuff report, Forbes’ encounter with the sex worker in Wellington happened in July 2024.
Forbes reportedly gave the sex worker his phone password after being confronted with the secret audio recording. The woman, together with other sex workers, then found multiple audio recordings of similar sessions, as well as photos and video in the device.
At that time, Forbes was the press secretary to social development minister Louise Upston. He became the acting deputy press secretary to Luxon in February.
Upston and Luxon said they had not known about the complaint against Forbes, who said in a statement he was “was in a downward spiral due to unresolved trauma and stress” at the time of the incident. He said he has since sought professional help, but acknowledged what he had “failed to do then was make a genuine attempt to apologise”.
Luxon on Thursday called for a review of “inter-agency processes” after police chief Richard Chambers said the authorities had known about an investigation into Forbes last July but did not flag it to ministers.
“We have to take this incident and understand what has happened here and how it happened, and what more can we do about it,” Luxon said.
