Brian Tamaki has a disruption plan to “break apart” Parliament and its “lying politicians”. It was inspired by God, he says.
Tamaki – Destiny Church founder and co-founder of the Freedoms New Zealand political party – says God gave him a vision of how he should run the campaign.
He’s “had insight from the spirit world”, he claimed.
Undemocratic
The disruption plan is raising fears that Freedoms New Zealand plans to subvert democratic norms in the run up to October’s election.
Some disruptive action has already begun, in fact.
On Monday, a Freedoms NZ election candidate scaled a 2m-high fence to interrupt Opposition leader Chris Luxon’s press conference.
Luxon asked the candidate to “be respectful” and talk afterwards. The disruption continued. Luxon moved the conference elsewhere so he could talk freely.
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins called the interruption an “anti-democratic” publicity stunt. It drowned out other people’s voices and gave the public less chance to hear from politicians ahead of the election.
But Tamaki told church followers that Freedoms NZ was exercising its “right to protest and speak publicly”.
He says his disruption plan will target Act Party leader David Seymour next.
‘You’re next David [Seymour], you’re another one that hides the truth.”
“This could spread right across, down the south and everywhere,” Tamaki told his followers.
Security
This weeks interruption coincided with the Government’s increased security budget for Members of Parliament, to protect them at their homes, offices and at Parliament.
Politicians have been reporting more confrontations with abusive, threatening protesters. In one case in May last year, Luxon was kept inside a venue in Palmerston North until police arrived.
He later said one of New Zealand’s greatest strengths was that the public could easily talk to and approach politicians and that care was needed to preserve that.
But divisive and polarising politics could grow in New Zealand, politicians warn. These divisions are more commonly associated with the United States and are a danger to democracy, they say.
Tamaki’s disruption plan
Tamaki told followers in his sermon that his comments about disruption followed politicians’ accusations that his team wanted to be disruptive.
He discovered the word’s Latin root means to “break apart”.
“I love this word disruption, to break apart – break apart this hold they have on our Parliament where the people cannot get their voice in,” he told church followers.
“Break apart that Parliament, break apart the lying politicians, break apart the dominant party spirit that does not allow the people to have a voice or access to their own Parliament.”
A Destiny church Facebook post shows the Freedoms NZ candidate interrupting Luxon under the headline: “Be a weapon of mass disruption”.
This is positive, Tamaki said.
Disruption can be “something that begins to create something better than what was there before”.
But violence is not acceptable, Tamaki insists. “Break apart means to challenge by valid and lawful means.”
Tamaki said Luxon’s press conference interruption was not pre-planned – but “brilliant”.
He now expected more of his party members would “pop up” unannounced.
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