Hannah Tamaki

Hannah Tamaki JP (née Lee; born 1960) is the wife of Brian Tamaki, the leader of the Pentecostal fundamentalist movement Destiny Church.

She is also the leader of the Christian fundamentalist political party Vision NZ.

Hannah Lee was born in Tokoroa in 1960 as the daughter of a European father named Basil Lee and a Māori mother named Polly.

She has seven half-brothers and half-sisters.

Basil worked as the foreman of the Tokoroa cheese factory.

Hannah is the wife of Brian Tamaki, the leader of Destiny Church.

The couple have three children and six grandchildren.

Hannah attended Tokoroa High School where she played netball, softball and hash harriers.

In 1976, she dropped out of school at the age of 15 and found work at the SuperValue supermarket in Tokoroa.

She met her future husband Brian Tamaki (who was two years older) and the two developed a romantic relationship.

In August 1978, the couple moved to Te Awamutu where Brian became the manager at a dairy farm belonging to one of his relatives.

In February 1979, Hannah gave birth to the couple's first child, Jasmine.

Hannah bore a second daughter, named Jamie, 14 months later.

In early 1979, Hannah underwent a "born-again" experience after Brian's parents Duke and Margaret Tamaki underwent a born-again experience following a meeting with Pastor Roy Beach, a former motorcycle-gang member turned pastor.

The couple subsequently returned to Tokoroa in August 1979, staying with Basil.

Hannah resumed her supermarket job while Brian found work tree-felling.

Brian subsequently underwent a similar born-again experience in late 1979.

The couple married on 22 March 1980.

Hannah accompanied her husband as he pastored Rosetown Community Church in Te Awamutu and Lake City Church in Rotorua during the 1980s and 1990s.

While in Te Awamutu, Hannah coached a netball team in order to increase their church's local contacts.

In January 1982, Hannah and her daughters accompanied her husband Brian to Te Nikau Bible College near Paraparaumu, which was affiliated with Pentecostal and Charismatic movements.

During that period, Hannah gave birth to a son named Samuel.

Hannah also took two courses at the Bible college, gaining an understanding of Christian theology.

After Brian completed his ministerial training at Te Nikau Bible College, Hannah returned to her supermarket job.

Brian took up a leadership role at Tokoroa Apostolic Church and became the manager of government employment-scheme.

In 1994, Brian seceded from the Apostolic Church denomination and founded his own movement, which subsequently became known as Destiny Church.

In 1998, the Tamakis moved to Auckland and established City Church Auckland, which opened on 4 July.

Destiny Church regards this date as its official commencement.

Around 2002, Hannah Tamaki founded the Healing Hands Ministry as a small organisation to earn money from the Destiny women's meetings and to support people undergoing treatment, particularly for cancer.

According to the historian Peter Lineham, Hannah served as the "business brains" of Destiny Church, complementing her husband Brian who was primarily a visionary.

Hannah also helped to manage her husband's image and to guard the structure and direction of the movement.

Hannah played an active role in the leadership of Destiny Church, frequently leading worship and was always portrayed as the partner of her husband in all his ministries.

In addition, Tamaki received a salary due to Brian's view that wives should be paid for their ministry if they were working alongside husbands who were employed by the church.

Hannah and Anne Williamson, the wife of Destiny leader Neil Williamson, played an important role in securing funding for the church's bilingual early childhood centre Nga Tamariki Puawai, which opened in 2002.

The early childhood centre received a favourable review from the Education Review Office and later had six staff who were trained in the Māori language and general institutions.

According to Lineham, Hannah supported Anne Williamson's proposal that Destiny Church start its own political party.

Destiny New Zealand was subsequently registered with the Electoral Commission on 1 June 2003.

The party contested the 2005 New Zealand general election, gaining only 0.62% of the popular vote (14,210 votes), and winning no seats in the New Zealand House of Representatives.

Destiny New Zealand was subsequently deregistered in September 2007.

On 23 May 2019, Hannah and her husband Brian announced the launch of a new political party called "Coalition New Zealand."