Do we like Brian Tamaki?
Our score: 1 out of 10. A long, loud run of his own harmful words and campaigning, with no verified good found to set against it.
Brian Tamaki leads Destiny Church out of south Auckland. He first hit the national headlines leading the 2004 march on Parliament against the Civil Union Bill, and he later became the public face of New Zealand's anti-lockdown protests in 2021. He is 68 and still very much in the fight.
Those lockdown protests landed him in court. He was charged over several 2021 rallies and denied the charges, and he spent about 10 days in jail in early 2022 over an alleged bail breach. In November 2024 police dropped the last charges mid-trial and he walked out without a conviction, calling it “a great victory today”. Fair is fair: that one ended in his favour.
The harm check is where it gets ugly. In a 2017 sermon he described gay clergy as a contamination in churches. In 2019 he stood before almost 2,000 people and apologised to the rainbow community, vowing never to post anti-gay views online again. By May 2024 he was organising a protest outside a Christchurch youth centre that helps trans and non-binary people get healthcare, with supporters carrying signs calling puberty blockers “child abuse”. An apology followed by more of the same counts for nothing here.
The recent stoush is the worst yet. In a June Facebook video he accused India's prime minister of persecuting Christians, then said “Let's purge New Zealand of Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims.” Ethnic Communities Minister Mark Mitchell called it “the actions of a scared bully”, and police referred the material for legal assessment. Tamaki told RNZ the minister was “missing the point”.
Police then suspended his firearms licence and seized his guns while the regulator checks whether he is fit and proper to hold one. The Federation of Islamic Associations called his comments “verbal bullets of incitement”. Tamaki said police “obviously think that I'm dangerous with it”, and linked the seizure to complaints from migrant communities.
On 19 October he pleaded not guilty in Manukau District Court to three charges of inciting racial disharmony, over Facebook posts described as abusive and insulting. He says he has never threatened or advocated violence against anyone, and calls it a free speech case. He returns to court on 25 January 2027. He also says Australia detained him and cancelled his visa a day later, which is his account: Home Affairs would not discuss the case.