Vision NZ


Vision NZ is a political party in New Zealand. It was announced on 23 May 2019 by Destiny Church leaders Brian and Hannah Tamaki.
The party, led by Hannah Tamaki, aims to become a vehicle for the "silent majority" to express their beliefs. It aims to win support both in electorate seats and in the party-list vote in the 2020 New Zealand general election. Tamaki plans to contest the electorate of Waiariki.

History

Earlier parties associated with the Tamakis

Destiny Church was founded by Brian Tamaki in 1998, and Destiny New Zealand, a socially conservative Christian political party, was formed in 2003. The party contested the 2005 New Zealand general election; it received just over 14,000 party votes, or 0.62%, and won no seats. It was deregistered as a political party in 2007. Members of Destiny New Zealand helped found The Family Party, another Christian party, in late 2007. Destiny Church supported the party in the 2008 New Zealand general election; it won no seats and was deregistered in 2010.

Creation and registration

In 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. 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.
On 10 July 2019 the party applied to the Electoral Commission for registration. On 16 August the Electoral Commission refused registration on the grounds that the party's name and logo was likely to mislead voters. In October 2019, the party announced a new name, Vision NZ, and a new logo, and applied to the Electoral Commission for registration. The Commission has stated that, apart from the name and logo, the party has met all other requirements for registration. The registration was confirmed on 4 December.
The party received a broadcasting allocation of $51,821 for the 2020 election.

Relationship with other parties

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

''Dancing with the Stars'' and related events

In February 2020, Hannah Tamaki was understood to be a contestant on the upcoming Dancing with the Stars television show. 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."
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 police are assessing a complaint laid about the post. Tamaki fired Goulter for these comments. 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.

Policies

The party's leader, Hannah Tamaki, called for a ban on new mosques. Tamaki has also talked about cutting immigration levels. Tamaki is against abortion and says that being gay is "wrong". Brian Tamaki has said that homosexuality is a sin and has maintained a link between homosexuality and natural disasters.
The party seeks to remove the right of permanent residents to vote. It supports greater financial autonomy for Māori people, including a Māori-owned bank, Tūhoe ownership of Te Urewera, and government funding for Destiny Church programmes.