Hannah Tamaki has admitted to getting rental income from a COVID-19 testing station set up in the Destiny Church car park.
Tamaki has been in the news recently after her husband, Destiny Church leader Brian, was summoned to the Auckland Central police station following a gathering of about 2000 people at the Auckland Domain on Saturday. The protest was the second of its kind this month.
Police labelled the event a "significant breach" of the COVID-19 alert level restrictions.
Speaking to Newstalk ZB on Friday, Tamaki said they are anti-lockdown, but not anti-vax. She would not say if the couple had been vaccinated, saying it was invasive to ask about one's medical history.
However, Brian has previously made unsubstantiated claims about the vaccine's safety and claimed "COVID is yet to be proved", according to the NZ Herald.
The comments were slammed by top vaccine experts including University of Auckland infectious diseases associate professor Mark Thomas who said it was preying on people who were "potentially easily doomed".
"I think it's a terrible stain on his reputation and on his soul."
Hannah was also questioned by host Kate Hawkesby if it was true that Destiny Church-owned GP practices were getting money for giving COVID-19 vaccination.
"We don't have our own practice. We lease outside of our building to a medical centre," she said.
But she admitted they do receive rental income from leasing the car park outside their church for a COVID testing centre.
"We do actually, we do… yes."
"I'm going to say, they asked us at the beginning of the COVID back in February if they could lease because they wanted to set up a testing station in South Auckland.
"We talked about it and we decided if the Government is really pushing for people to get tested - we aren't opposed to people being tested."
When asked if she is only for something COVID-19 related when she makes money from it, Tamaki said they "don't need to talk about that".
"It doesn't compare to what the rest of the building costs us. But we lease it out to a school, an early childhood centre and a gym. Now if the medical centre is part of our lease. Then who are we, as the leasees, to decline them to run what they are asked to run?"
