Brian Tamaki has escalated his fight with the Government, tweeting that Jacinda Ardern and senior ministers have tried to politically "gang rape" him.
The self-proclaimed bishop is upset over the failure to fund his Man Up programme in prisons. Both Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis and the Prime Minister say this is because Tamaki hasn't properly applied.
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Tamaki posted on Twitter earlier on Monday, warning he would cause inmate revolts in every prison if his programme Man Up was not allowed in.
He also called Davis a liar, and traded insults with Finance Minister Grant Robertson.
Now he's added fuel to the feud, tweeting on Tuesday that Ardern and other senior Labour MPs had "tried a political 'gang rape' on me".
"I think the Minister of Finance has breached 'NZ Bill of Rights' in his Personal Rant nd Criticism of me..looks like PM Jacida Ardern,MP Grant Robertson nd MP Kelvin Davis tried a Political 'Gang Rape' on me Yesterday? [sic]" he wrote.
Tamaki then denied that his reference to political gang rape had anything do with physical gang rape.
"The term is about three senior Cabinet Ministers... ranting about a prison reform programme, a successful one at that - Man Up - ranting on social media and one of them criticising me. Don't you think that's a bit more than coincidence?" he told NZME.
"Our prison system is in a serious condition and Kelvin's got not answers to it."
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern responded on Tuesday, telling the media in Parliament: "As I said yesterday, any incitement of violence on Twitter by Brian Tamaki I think is completely irresponsible."
Ardern added: "If ultimately he wants his programmes to be offered in prisons, we've said to him consistently, he needs to go through the same process that everyone else does - that's the way he should be engaging with us, not through tweets like that."
Given the kinds of messages he's sent, Ardern said Tamaki is "certainly not helping himself".
Tamaki's 15-week Man Up programme claims to help "dysfunctional" men with a record of violent offending and addiction by rehabilitating them to re-enter society after prison.
The programme claims to have over 300 groups operating in every main city and town in New Zealand, as well as groups running internationally in Australia and Cambodia.
Tamaki says the programme has a success rate for non-reoffending of 72 percent.
However Davis has questioned the integrity of Destiny Church and where the money would go if it received funding.
"I don't believe the money would go where they say it would go," he told Newsroom.
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