Sean Plunket Has Lost His Multi-Millionaire Backer

Webworm can report that "The Platform" has lost the financial support of Wayne Wright Jr.

Edit: Sunday July 27, 6.50pm PT

I wanted to offer some clarity up the top here.

The headline of this piece — “Sean Plunket Has Lost His Multi-Millionaire Backer” — is based on the words of Sean Plunket’s multi-millionaire backer, Wayne Wright Jr., who says he has stopped financially backing The Platform.

There is a chance Wayne Wright Jr. is absolutely full of shit — as is the case with most multi-millionaires. As reported below, despite claiming to have cut his direct funding, he remains a director and majority shareholder at The Platform.

I’d also add that since this piece was published, Media Insider has also dug in — reporting that Wayne Jr. now owns 75% of The Platform. Many thanks to Media Insider for referencing Webworm in their reporting.

New Zealand’s biggest news site “Stuff” repeated my reporting, with zero attribution to Webworm. This is a habit of the New Zealand media in general, who have a phobia of referencing other outlets.

The Incredible Multiverse of NZ Journalism

Finally: If Wayne Wright Jr. wants to clarify or amend his statement — I am always davidfarrier@protonmail.com

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Hi,

If you’ve been reading Webworm for a while, you’ll know there have been some recurring characters over the last five years. LA actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt comes to mind, as does the Hare Krishna who called me “c**t face”. There are also a raft of more devious types including the Evangelical Cameron brothers, fantasist Anna Wilding, and the New Zealander’s behind Lonely Lingerie.

Then there’s Sean Plunket.

I first wrote about Sean Plunket back in 2021 when he was a presenter on mainstream New Zealand radio. I spoke to a young woman who detailed what it was like working alongside him: “This was back when Magic Talk was pumped into the bathroom so we all had to listen to homophobic, misogynistic, transphobic rhetoric all day long. I think I was particularly affected by stuff around young women and sexual assault.”

Not long after that, Plunket left Magic Talk. At the time I wrote, “To be clear — this isn’t about free speech or being silenced. Sean always finds a platform.”

That ended up being much more of a literal statement than I’d intended. Later that year Plunket launched The Platform, his own “independent” online radio show. It was there that Plunket teamed up with the subject of my documentary Mister Organ, as the titular Mr Organ attempted to drag me through the New Zealand courts (which cost me about $10,000).

The Platform was entirely funded by multi-millionaire Wayne Wright Jr, whose family empire is worth an estimated $360 million. And until today, it was thought that Wayne Wright Jr was still backing Sean’s venture.

Today, Webworm can report that The Platform has lost Wayne Wright Jr’s millions. It lost them way back in March.

Sean Plunket and his (former) multi-millionaire backer Wayne Wright Jr. back in 2024.

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How I came to be aware of this involves diving into the horrible world of Sean Plunket.

As I’m sure you are aware, over 100 international aid organisations and human rights groups warned of mass starvation in Gaza last week. There has been starvation before in Gaza, but the current rates far exceed anything that has come before. This is what happens when the world turns away from a genocide.

If you are reading news sites or scrolling through Instagram, you will have seen the images. I have my issues with the New York Times, but these photos from Friday have stuck with me.

With all this in mind, two days ago Sean Plunket took to X to say this:

His post has been viewed over 67,000 times — it’s popular. And it is an objectively heinous thing to write as infants, children and adults starve to death.

Plunket is an elderly troll both in body and mind, and perhaps this is his idea of a “funny joke”. But I also wonder if it’s — somehow — something even worse: That he is denying that starvation is taking place. His latest retweet (and this is rough, I feel horrific for even sharing it — but context is important) floats a theory that incest is causing the “sickly children.”

I have called Sean Plunket a human stain before — and I stand by that.

I guess a few people also felt strongly about this, because after Plunket tweeted that stuff, a bunch of people got in touch with the Wright Family Foundation.

As I mentioned earlier, Sean Plunket launched The Platform with Wayne Wright Jr’s millions — and it’s worth noting at this point that Wayne Wright Jr and his family got very, very rich by running New Zealand’s biggest childcare company, Kidicorp.

Something about the idea of Sean Plunket joking about dying Gazan children, whilst being backed by millions that had been partly amassed running New Zealand LARGEST FUCKING CHILDCARE FACILITY felt just a little too on the nose.

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One New Zealander angered by all this was Liv Tennet, who shared a screenshot of Plunket’s abhorrent post on her Instagram, tagging in the Wright Family Foundation.

An unnamed person from the Foundation replied to Tennet yesterday, stating:

The Wright Family Foundation left Liv with a direct email for Mr Wayne Wright Jr. (wwright.nz@gmail.com), who Liv then emailed. She also got some of her friends to email him too.

To their surprise, Wayne Wright Jr. wrote back — the same message to each person:

There are a lot of things to unpack about this message — including the fact that freedom of speech does not leave you free from consequences.

But the main surprising thing is that Wayne Wright Jr. casually just said he stopped funding The Platform way back in March.

To be clear — I have zero reason to trust the words of Wayne Wright Jr.

He is a millionaire with a million ways to get money to whoever he wants without me knowing about it. I think of this 2022 Spinoff story about the Wright family’s millions and their childcare empire:

[The Wright Family’s] crown jewel though, was childcare. A service every parent needs, a rare part of our education system which is largely privatised – but one the state heavily subsidises. They owned a huge chunk of that system through companies like ABC and Best Start. A few years ago they made headlines for the apparent altruism of giving the business away to charity, though the charity was the Wright Family Foundation, and the business was actually bought with a vendor loan, repaid at a cool $20m a year to the Wright Family Trust.

I also note that despite Wayne Jr saying he’s ceased funding The Platform, he remains a director and majority shareholder:

With all that in mind, I have asked Wayne for clarity about exactly when he cut funding to The Platform, and why. I’m awaiting his reply. Until then, I guess we take him at his word.

Perhaps The Platform no longer has its big multi-millionaire backer. The question is what morally spineless gremlin is backing it now?

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I also find myself thinking about something else Wayne told The Spinoff three years ago. Journalist Duncan Grieve asked him if he thought Sean Plunket’s horrific personality, ethics, or morals could ever blow back in Wayne’s face:

I ask whether he fears becoming associated with The Platform might blow back on him […] “That’s a very legitimate question… it was the one area that I dwelt on the most.” He ultimately decided his family’s fortress was essentially impregnable. “They can’t cancel me,” says Wright. “When people come and rattle their sabres at us, we can say, ‘well, tomorrow is another day. Good luck with that. And by the way, you could buy one of our things over here. Stay in a hotel we own’.”

Wayne Wright Jr. essentially boasted about being un-cancellable because he’s so loaded. And perhaps that’s true.

But he’s also decided to stop giving Sean Plunket money. Or decided to lie and say he has.

Either way — perhaps, sometimes, one toxic man becomes simply too toxic for another.

David.

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If you want to support Gazans, it's a complex situation out there — especially with aid being blocked by Israel.

Personally, I turn to World Kitchen: https://wck.org/relief/chefs-for-gaza

For anyone US-based, Stephanie does incredible peer-to-peer mutual aid. Her contact is a journalist in Gaza: https://www.instagram.com/stephaniehshih

You can check her saved stories for receipts.

But as with all things: Do your research on where you give.

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If you want to get in touch about this story I am: davidfarrier@protonmail.com

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