Minor parties distance themselves from Tamaki-led alliance

With a major protest at Parliament just days away, the race is on among the parties outside the Beehive to put themselves in front of the crowd.

Protest parties see an opportunity to cross MMP’s 5% threshold if they can form an alliance. But big questions remain about who would lead it.

Destiny Church leader Brian Tamaki, on behalf of the Hannah Tamaki-led Vision NZ, claims to have no fewer than four parties signed up under their banner.

But Q+A’s Whena Owen found many of the potential parties who might be involved in the alliance are staying coy on whether they’re in.

“It’s not my place to say on camera who those parties are, but my understanding is that Brian wants to announce it on the 23rd on the steps of Parliament,” said Hannah Tamaki.

The New Conservatives and the Christian-based One Party – both of whom stood in the 2020 election and beat Vision in the party vote – say they are not part of a Tamaki-led alliance.

And Outdoors and Freedom party leader Sue Grey, who recently got 5% in the Tauranga by-election, only went as far as to say there is scope for an umbrella party covering the space.

“I would like to be part of it. I don’t think it necessarily has to be the Outdoors and Freedom Party, but we’re well placed because we’re registered.”

To stand for the party vote, parties have to register with the Electoral Commission and demonstrate they have at least 500 paying members.

Several other groups – including Democracy NZ, led by former National MP Matt King, and the New Nation Party – are not yet registered for the 2023 election. Neither would confirm whether they’ve joined the alliance.

King, who won the Northland seat in 2017, talked up his party’s prospects for leadership of any alliance on the grounds that he has the potential to win the seat again.

Various protest groups are planning a rally on parliamentary grounds on August 23, in the hope of rekindling the movement that occupied parliament earlier this year.

After that ended in violence and acrimony, Hannah Tamaki was quick to distance herself from the potential for more violence this time around.

“Once we walk away, once Brian and the Freedom and Rights Coalition walk away, sorry about it. Not our concern,” she said.