Vision New Zealand party leader Hannah Tamaki is no stranger to controversy, her campaign manager's "disgusting" attack on The Project host Kanoa Lloyd the latest in a string of contentious comments.
Most recently, the pastor has become embroiled in the fallout of Lloyd slamming Tamaki's "xenophobic" beliefs during The Project on Monday. Lloyd aired her views in response to the pastor's rumoured place in Dancing With the Stars' celebrity line-up.
Tamaki's now former campaign manager Jevan Goulter retaliated by saying Lloyd should "show NZ what voluntary euthanasia looks like".
Although Tamaki was quick to fire Goulter on Tuesday, the controversy is yet another bump in the road for Tamaki's tumultuous career. Her and husband Brian have long attracted attention for their ultra-conservative values, dubbed "wacky" and "bizarre" by National Party leader Simon Bridges.
A walk down memory lane reminds us of some other questionable incidents involving Hannah Tamaki.
Vision NZ promises to ban new 'mosques, temples and other foreign buildings'
In a November press release, Tamaki said her party would, if elected, "immediately stop the phony Indian marriage scheme before proceeding to bring an immediate stop to all further mosques, temples and other foreign buildings of worship being erected in our country".
"They can be us if they choose to integrate with our Kiwi way of life and not the other way around... I do not believe there is room in our society to allow for parallel cultures, faith or customs."
The party has previously said it wants to withdraw New Zealand from the UN's Global Compact for Migration and to pay refugees to stay in the war-torn countries "they have managed to destroy".
"They are not us and we are not them," she said in November.
Tamaki shares fake image of Shane Jones shooting a Muslim woman
In October 2019, Tamaki posted a fake image on her Twitter account depicting NZ First MP Shane Jones proudly showing off a picture of a Muslim woman riddled with bullet holes.
"What does this picture SAY?. About MP Shane Jones [sic]," the Destiny Church matriarch wrote.
The original image, uploaded to Facebook by his wife Dot, showed the Regional Economic Development Minister holding up a generic target, showing off his impressive aim. The version Tamaki tweeted was amended to include a woman in a black niqab.
Tamaki's spokesperson Anne Williamson told Newshub she found the image on Facebook and Jones had been tagged.
"She wasn't actually making a comment at all about the Muslim women and she didn't know whether it had been doctored or not."
New Zealand's immigration should be cut by 97 percent
Following the formal announcement of Vision NZ - formerly Coalition NZ - in May, Tamaki called for immigration to be cut by 97 percent. Despite her declaration, Tamaki seemed to be ill-informed over how many people come and go each year.
In an interview on The AM Show, Tamaki said: "I know that we have an immigration gate, doorway - I'd love to see that narrowed down a wee bit.
"I actually don't know the figures but say if it was 2000 a year - I'd love it to come down to 200 a year so New Zealanders get jobs, so New Zealanders get houses."
Duncan Garner told her in recent years, it's averaged around 70,000 net.
"Okay, well then people may not like me but I'd love it to be dropped right down to say 2000," she replied.
In a statement released on Tuesday, Tamaki said she would "never condone that disgusting language and behaviour" in response to Goulter's post comparing Lloyd to a "rancid rotten stuffed pig with blood pouring out of [its] eyes".
The Destiny Church pastor said that while she felt she and Vision NZ had been "unfairly targeted" by the media, they "in no way condone the language he used towards a woman and inferences made by Mr Goulter in his post".
