Brain Tamaki's "Man Up" organisation is opposing claims their rehabilitation programme doesn't have a place in New Zealand prisons.
The programme is aimed at helping violent offenders, by getting men to open up about their struggles and frustration.
However, Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis says he won't approve it because of the Destiny Church leader's threatening comments online.
A tweet from Mr Tamaki said it looked like members of the Government "tried a political 'gang rape'" on him was labelled as "disgusting" by Mr Davis.
As well, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says it was "irresponsible to try and incite violence in the prison system because you're not getting your way", after he tweeted the Man Up programme would visit inmates "and cause inmate revolts in every prison".
But Man Up National Director Caine Warren told TVNZ1's Breakfast today Mr Tamaki's comments reflected his desire to help offenders - changing his wording from "frustration" after being questioned about whether or not the programme's point was to help men control those feelings.
"What we do right is we give men, families, the opportunities to basically come to a place where they can start to deal with the deeper issues ... work through those things, not to become a victim in their future but to actually have a life, have a better future, and I think that's what Man Up actually provides," Mr Warren said.
"It's a safe place for men to actually come and talk."
The programme sounds good on the surface, but instances of its members shouting abuse outside Christchurch mosques and it's leader's comments have made some question how well it actually works.
Women's Refuge has cancelled a planned meeting with representatives of the programme because of behaviour it describes as "arrogant", "destructive" and "downright ugly".
The controversial programme, however, has benefitted former Mongrel Mob president Toko Kopu. He too joined Breakfast this morning and said the programme had helped him turn his life around.
He described himself as an angry and violent man before starting the programme, and discussed his difficult upbringing of being physically abused and ending up on the streets.
Māori in New Zealand have a lower life expectancy, are often on the lower socio-economic scale, lower health outcomes and make up the majority of the country's prison population.
Mr Kopu said prisons did not work to turn those statistics around, in fact they incited violent behaviour and were breeding grounds for gangs.
Man Up, however, got "deep inside the core issues", he said. "It was about opening up instead of hardening up - I didn't do that in prison."
"All the men in there [in prison] doing the courses, they wanted to remain hard because of the atmosphere of the prison lifestyle, but out here we were able to open up."
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