'Can you see me?' Councillor's Zoom meeting with 'hostage' goes viral

A humble New Zealand politician has gone viral after joining a work Zoom meeting from whate seems like her bathroom at home.

Councillor Jo Galer logged into the meeting of the Dunedin City Council on Monday.

“You might want to move your camera,” Mayor Sophie Barker tells Galer.

“We can see your washing," she adds, referring to the vast array of undergarments drying behind the councillor.

“Can you see me?” Galer responds.

The clip has now gone viral, with many jokes made on hundreds of online posts sharing the moment.

For example, at one point during Galer's speech – which focused on local government reform – a dark figure can be seen behind a frosted door in the background.

A hand can be seen reaching towards the glass before being pulled back, as if the person realised they were about to feature on a council meeting.

“Who was in the shower? Was it her man? Was she holding someone hostage?” one comment under the video asked.

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A post shared by AFP News Agency (@afpnewsagency)

‘There is a person locked in her shower’

Galer’s fellow councillors spoke to the New Zealand news site Stuff about the viral moment - on the condition of anonymity.

“I wouldn’t speculate, but it really did look like there was someone in there,” one said.

Another added, “I thought I was imagining things. I saw movement and thought, ‘No, there is no way’. It wasn’t until afterwards when I checked YouTube, there is a person locked in her shower. There is definitely a person in there... you can see a hand come down and they realise what they have done and moved into the corner.”

A third councillor said they were “a bit distracted by the washing, to be honest…It was distracting... most of us know how to use the blur button."

A fourth said they were “perplexed and perturbed by the display of undergarments”.

It is not the first time the council in Dunedin has made headlines. In 2020 then-councillor David Benson-Pope was caught with his pants down, appearing on a Zoom call while dusting his office in a suit jacket and bare legs.