Vision NZ

Vision NZ is a nationalist political party in New Zealand led by Hannah Tamaki, the co-leader of the Christian movement Destiny Church.[1][2][3] The party was announced in May 2019.[3] It contested the 2020 New Zealand general election both for electorate seats and the party list vote,[4] receiving 0.1% of the party vote and winning no seats.[5]

Vision NZ
LeaderHannah Tamaki
SecretaryAnne Williamson
Founded23 May 2019 (2019-05-23)
IdeologyChristian fundamentalism
Christian nationalism
Māori rights
Religious right
Nationalism
Right-wing populism
Colours  Brown and   Blue
MPs in the House of Representatives
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Website
https://www.vision.org.nz/

History

Earlier parties associated with the Tamakis
See also: Destiny Church (New Zealand) and Destiny New Zealand

Destiny Church was founded by Brian Tamaki in 1998[6] and is led by Brian and his wife Hannah Tamaki.[3] Destiny New Zealand, a socially conservative Christian political party, was formed in 2003.[7] The party contested the 2005 New Zealand general election; it received just over 14,000 party votes, or 0.62%, and won no seats.[8] It was deregistered as a political party in 2007.[9] The founder and former leader of the Destiny Party, Richard Lewis, created the Family Party in 2007.[10] The Destiny Church supported the Family Party in the 2008 New Zealand general election.[3] It won no seats[11] and was deregistered in 2010.[12]

Creation and registration

On 23 May 2019, Hannah and Brian Tamaki announced the creation of a new party, at the time called Coalition New Zealand, with Hannah Tamaki to lead the party. She would not talk about policies at the announcement.[3] Brian described the aim of the party to become a vehicle for the "silent majority" to express their beliefs.[3] The party had not created a website, and in the days following the announcement, a number of other people registered relevant domain names and social media handles to stymie the party.[13][14]

On 10 July 2019 the party applied to the Electoral Commission for registration.[15] On 16 August the Electoral Commission refused registration on the grounds that the party's name and logo was likely to mislead voters.[16][17] In October 2019, the party announced a new name, Vision NZ, and a new logo, and applied to the Electoral Commission for registration again.[18] The registration was confirmed on 4 December.[19]

The party received a broadcasting allocation of $51,821 for the 2020 election.[20]

Relationship with other parties

By December 2019, the leaders of both major parties, Labour and National, had ruled out working with Vision NZ.[21] In July 2020 it rejected a merger offer from the New Zealand Public Party.[22]

In February 2020, Hannah Tamaki was understood to be a contestant on the upcoming Dancing with the Stars television show.[23] Later that month, media company MediaWorks New Zealand announced that while Tamaki was originally going to be on the show, it changed its mind and formally announced she was not to be in the show. A spokesperson said that "we have seen a very strong reaction, some of which has been extreme and concerning and MediaWorks does not condone bullying. We would be failing in our duty of care to everyone if we continued as planned."[24]

After a TV presenter commented on Tamaki's inclusion in Dancing with the Stars, Vision NZ's campaign manager Jevan Goulter made a post on Facebook about the presenter. The post breached Facebook's community guidelines, media site Stuff declined to publish them, and as of February 2020 police were assessing a complaint laid about the post. Tamaki fired Goulter for these comments.[25][26] Tamaki was asked by a journalist about similar comments by her husband Brian, who referred to "venomous, dirty liberal left, sexually confused antichrists", but Mrs Tamaki said she was not responsible for her husband's comments as they are not related to Vision NZ.[27]

2020 election campaign

Vision submitted a party list of five people for the 2020 general election, tied for the shortest list with the Heartland Party.[28] All five also contested electorates, including Hannah Tamaki in the electorate of Waiariki.[29][30]

By the end of September 2020, Vision NZ had only registered in one Colmar Brunton poll, receiving 0.1% of support in its May 2020 poll. In all other polls it had not registered any support.[31][32] An electorate poll for the Waiariki seat conducted towards the end of September 2020 showed that Vision NZ's leader, Hannah Tamaki, was only polling at 2%, compared to her fellow candidates Tamati Coffey (38%) and Rawiri Waititi (26%).[33]

Vision New Zealand received 4,236 party votes at the 2020 election, or 0.1%.[5] Hannah Tamaki secured 1,171 electorate votes in Waiariki (4% of the electorate vote), coming third behind the Māori Party's Rawiri Waititi and Labour's Tamati Coffey.[34] The party won no seats, but Hannah Tamaki claimed after the election that her goal had always been to unseat Labour's Tāmati Coffey from the Waiariki electorate, and since that seat was won by Waititi, the party had achieved that goal.[35]

Policies

Vision NZ has been described as a Christian party[2][36] and a "Destiny Church-derived party",[16] but Hannah Tamaki insists that Vision NZ is not a Christian party, saying that "people don't have to go to church to be members of Vision New Zealand, they don't have to go to church to vote for Vision New Zealand."[1][37]

Vision opposes abortion and opposes homosexuality.[2] Hannah Tamaki says that being gay is "wrong",[24] though when discussing her opposition to gay MP Tāmati Coffey she said "If you do the work, I don’t care what you do, it’s your private life. I choose to live my Christian faith, and I don’t force that on anybody else."[35] Brian Tamaki has said that homosexuality is a sin and has maintained there is a link between homosexuality and natural disasters.[24]

Hannah Tamaki has called for a ban on the construction of new mosques.[38] The party opposes immigration and has promised to ban all immigration and refugees for two years, although Tamaki backtracked on this, saying there would not be a total ban on refugees.[37] It also seeks to remove the right of permanent residents to vote.[39]

Vision supports greater financial autonomy for Māori people, including a Māori-owned bank and Tūhoe ownership of Te Urewera. Vision has called for government funding for Destiny Church programmes.[40]

See also

References
  1. Jamie Ensor (23 May 2019). "Hannah Tamaki to lead new political party Coalition New Zealand". Newshub. Retrieved 23 May 2019. On Thursday, Hannah was announced as the leader of the party, saying it is not a party just for Christians but for everyone who feels frustrated with the current Government. Brian promised the party would be a 'vehicle' for the 'silent majority' to express their beliefs.
  2. "Party profile: Vision NZ". Your complete guide to NZ Election 2020 — Policy. Retrieved 10 September 2020.
  3. Melanie Earley (23 May 2019). "Destiny Church launches political party, promising 'politics with teeth'". Stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 23 May 2019.
  4. Jamie Ensor (23 May 2019). "Hannah Tamaki to lead new political party Coalition New Zealand". Newshub. Retrieved 23 May 2019. Hannah wouldn't go into details about what electorate seats the party would target or who would stand in them. But she did say they would be focussing on both the five percent threshold and winning a seat.
  5. "2020 General Election and Referendums - Official Result". Electoral Commission. 6 November 2020. Retrieved 6 November 2020.
  6. "14 things you might not know about Destiny Church". NZ Herald. 17 October 2017. ISSN 1170-0777. Retrieved 10 September 2020.
  7. Taylor, Kevin (27 May 2003). "Evangelist's church spawns Christian political party". NZ Herald. ISSN 1170-0777. Retrieved 10 September 2020.
  8. "Official Count Results -- Overall Status". Electoral Commission. Archived from the original on 7 March 2016. Retrieved 6 September 2014.
  9. "Destiny Church widening political scope". Newstalk ZB. 17 September 2007. Archived from the original on 15 October 2008. Retrieved 17 September 2007.
  10. "Another Christian political party announced". New Zealand Herald. 17 October 2007. Archived from the original on 3 November 2012. Retrieved 10 September 2020.
  11. "Official Count Results -- Overall Status". electionresults.govt.nz. Retrieved 10 September 2020.
  12. "Amendments to the Registers of Political Parties and Logos". Archived from the original on 14 May 2010. Retrieved 10 September 2020.
  13. "Chase star Paul Sinha takes a parting swipe at Brian and Hannah Tamaki". Stuff.co.nz. 27 May 2019. Retrieved 14 August 2019.
  14. "Kiwis continue to troll the Tamakis' Coalition Party, snapping up domain names". Stuff.co.nz. 25 May 2019. Retrieved 14 August 2019.
  15. "Application to register Coalition New Zealand party and logo". New Zealand Electoral Commission. 10 July 2019. Retrieved 16 July 2019.
  16. Hutt, Kendall (16 August 2019). "Electoral Commission refuses to register Destiny Church-derived party, Coalition NZ". Stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  17. "Hannah Tamaki's Coalition NZ Party denied party registration". New Zealand Herald. 16 August 2019. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  18. Walls, Jason (2 October 2019). "Destiny Church's Hannah Tamaki registers new political party name Vision NZ". New Zealand Herald. ISSN 1170-0777. Retrieved 1 October 2019.
  19. "Registration of political parties and logos". Electoral Commission. 4 December 2019. Retrieved 4 December 2019.
  20. "2020 Broadcasting Allocation Decision Released". Electoral Commission. 29 May 2020. Retrieved 29 May 2020.
  21. O'Brien, Tova (16 December 2019). "Ardern, Bridges rule out working with Hannah Tamaki's Vision NZ". MSN. Retrieved 24 February 2020.
  22. "Public Party praying for electoral lifeline". Waatea News. 16 July 2020. Retrieved 17 July 2020.
  23. "'Dancing with the Stars' could wrong-foot aspiring politician Hannah Tamaki". RNZ. 24 February 2020. Retrieved 24 February 2020.
  24. "Mediaworks confirms Hannah Tamaki will not be on Dancing with the Stars". RNZ. 25 February 2020. Retrieved 25 February 2020.
  25. Downes, Siobhan (25 February 2020). "Hannah Tamaki sacks campaign manager following 'hate speech' against Kanoa Lloyd". Stuff. Retrieved 25 February 2020.
  26. Downes, Siobhan (25 February 2020). "Hannah Tamaki's campaign manager sacked as police consider social media complaint". Stuff. Retrieved 25 February 2020.
  27. Checkpoint (25 February 2020). "Hannah Tamaki condemns attack post but dismisses husband Brian's similar post". RNZ. Retrieved 25 February 2020.
  28. "Parties | Vote NZ". vote.nz. Retrieved 19 September 2020.
  29. "Vision NZ leader Hannah Tamaki to run for seat in general election". RNZ. 17 June 2020. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
  30. "Our Team". Vision New Zealand. Retrieved 10 September 2020.
  31. "1 NEWS Colmar Brunton Poll: 16 – 20 May 2020" (PDF). 21 May 2020. p. 6.
  32. "1 NEWS Colmar Brunton Poll: 23-27 September 2020" (PDF). 28 September 2020. p. 6.
  33. "Undecided vote leaves Waiariki seat up for grabs". Maori TV. Retrieved 4 October 2020.
  34. "Waiariki - Official Result". Electoral Commission. 6 November 2020. Retrieved 6 November 2020.
  35. Maxwell, Joel (28 October 2020). "Election 2020: Good God! Destiny Church's Hannah Tamaki fulfills 'goal' to unseat Labour MP". Stuff. Retrieved 28 October 2020.
  36. Eleven, Beck (25 May 2019). "I don't see Brian and Hannah Tamaki's Christian party lasting long". Stuff. Retrieved 10 September 2020.
  37. Scotcher, Katie (10 September 2020). "An introduction to 'The Outliers': The political parties who aren't in the daily headlines". RNZ. Retrieved 10 September 2020.
  38. "Destiny Church's Hannah Tamaki calls for ban on new mosques". New Zealand Herald. 11 November 2019. Retrieved 15 November 2019.
  39. Vision NZ (24 October 2019). "Only NZ citizens should vote". Scoop. Retrieved 24 February 2020.
  40. "Hannah Tamaki announces Vision NZ policies". Otago Daily Times. 18 June 2020. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
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