The launch of a party fronted by Destiny Church leaders was a media event to remember. Alex Braae was there.

Somewhere along their journey through the public eye, Hannah and Brian Tamaki got the idea that the media hates them and their church. They have never been more wrong about anything.

From the moment Destiny Church members stormed down Lambton Quay chanting Enough is Enough, Brian Tamaki has been among the most bankable media figures in the country. No matter what he says or does, you know that if there’s coverage it will be polarising, controversial, dramatic.

It could be about his bizarre views connecting earthquakes and homosexuality, or his demands that his rehabilitation programme for prisoners get government backing despite never filing an application with the Department of Corrections. No matter the level of seriousness with which any reasonable person should take his pronouncements, they reverberate through the media. People will send complaints, and write letters to the editor about it. Social media engagement will flood in.

So it was, with the launch of the new Destiny Church Party. Everyone was there. Lisa Owen from Checkpoint and Katie Bradford from TVNZ were hurling questions hard and fast. The Project’s Rhys Mathewson looked for comedic angles. Steve Braunias floated around looking for colour, and asking if God had spoken to the Tamaki family about this party. In all, there were more than 30 reporters, camera operators and producers there.

It was all taking place in an opulent room, at Destiny Church’s Wiri headquarters. The wooden floors were covered in lush Persian rugs, and the walls were lined with the heads of animals Bishop Tamaki himself had shot. The lectern was gleaming metal, much shinier than what politicians normally stand behind. Clearly, the blessings of the Lord have rained down upon Destiny Church.

Apparently, though, it’s not actually a Destiny Church party at all. They insisted it wouldn’t be funded by donations from church members. They’re calling themselves Coalition NZ, and it will be led by Hannah Tamaki, not Brian. His passion, she explained, is to oversee the church. It seemed unlikely that he would even be a candidate for the party, though they’re not talking about who will stand in which seats yet.

That didn’t stop many of the questions being directed at him anyway. At times, their media liaison Jevan Goulter even tried to step in to keep the questions being directed at Hannah. But why bother with that, when her husband has some of the best name recognition in the country, and a reputation for giving shocking soundbites?

Jeremy Wells from Seven Sharp took this tack, trying to get a rise out of the Bishop by escalating his titles with an arched eyebrow. But the plan came unstuck when “Your Grace” was asked about the capital gains tax, and gave an answer about relieved small business owners that was entirely uncontroversial and boring.

Do they even have a proverbial snowball’s hope of getting elected? Hannah Tamaki pitched Coalition NZ as a party that wasn’t about Destiny Church, and insisted it wasn’t even a Christian party, though she did make it clear they were standing on Christian values. She believes that the goal of the 5% threshold is possible, as even those who aren’t believers could be tempted to vote for the party, such is the disgust the so-called “silent majority” have for the current government.

She also magnanimously stretched out olive branches to both National MP Alfred Ngaro, who is considering setting up a Christian values party too, and to the New Conservative party. They’d be more than welcome to join Coalition NZ, she said, offering Ngaro the chance to come and sit next to her. Perhaps even former Mana leader Hone Harawira could be convinced to run for the party in Te Tai Tokerau, the Bishop hinted, though nothing had been confirmed there yet.

The chances of such a party getting above 5% are, of course, minuscule. A previous iteration of Destiny Church’s political ambitions garnered 0.61% of the vote back in 2005, and that was just after the massive rallies against the Civil Union bill. Now they’re trying to present themselves as being a movement for more than just Destiny, despite all four people fronting the press conference being intimately involved in the church. Many avowed Christians despise Destiny, believing they adhere to a twisted version of the prosperity gospel. Many New Zealanders generally just think Brian is a bit of a dick. And history clearly shows that minor parties universally fail to win seats if they don’t already have an MP in place when they’re formed.

So what were we all doing there? There’s plenty of news around today. The government made a big announcement on changes to their Budget Responsibility Rules, there are strikes on, there’s big news out of the kiwifruit industry, the British government could fall, climate change continues and so on.

But all of that shit is boring, compared to the absolute scenes of a press conference at Destiny Church. We won’t be chill about this, and we won’t keep this in proportion. You’re going to keep hearing all about Hannah Tamaki’s extreme stance against abortion, or hear Brian fling barbs at the Corrections minister, whether you want to or not.

The truth is, we love Destiny Church and the Tamaki family. We need them on our platforms. The Tamaki family are the perfect modern media talent, just as CNN found Donald Trump was pure media talent when he was just another candidate in a crowded primary field.

The Green MP has been given extra security following threats of violence. She tells the Spinoff about the ‘barrage of hate’ she confronts.

Green MP Golriz Ghahraman has described the “barrage of hate” she has received since becoming a member of parliament, and its impact on her life and employment.

In an interview with Leonie Hayden for a forthcoming episode of the Spinoff webseries On the Rag, recorded last week, Ghahraman said threats of violence had begun almost as soon as she announced her candidacy for parliament. That escalated after the Christchurch terror attacks. “I was literally getting threats of gun violence just from being perceived to be Muslim, so that community has definitely been getting threats, hate crimes, they’ve been reporting it.”

It was revealed this week that Ghahraman has been assigned a security escort at parliament in response to heightened threats. That followed comments on a radio programme by ACT Party leader David Seymour, who said Ghahraman was a “menace to freedom” because of her views on hate speech laws. These comments were made the same week an investigation by Patrick Gower for Newshub revealed conversations in a white supremacy Facebook group about lynching and hanging the Green Party MP.

Gharaman has called for a debate around hate speech laws following the terrorist attacks in Christchurch.

The freedom of speech debate had become hopelessly lopsided in its focus, she said.

“When people speak about free speech, can you actually address the thing that’s silencing those without power as much as you talk about giving a voice to people who already have it?”

She had been both buoyed and alarmed by the responses to her election to parliament.

“I’m always really shocked by how excited and touched people are by having the representation. I didn’t expect that, but then you get an equally really scared, panicked, angry mob who didn’t expect to have that representation happen either.”

She added: “I especially get it when I appear to be confident. They hate that.”

She spoke frankly, too, about her struggle with anxiety.

“I have therapy for anxiety. And I think for me, it’s probably started with giving me quite a strong dose of imposter syndrome back in the day in my life. I never saw anyone like me in the positions that I wanted to be in, and there’s not a whole lot of refugees in the law, or in the UN. And there’s not a whole lot of refugees doing a Masters at Oxford, you know? It’s kind of a weird – every room you walk into, you are different and underlying that is that you’re maybe less deserving …

“So, that certainly causes anxiety, but I think now that it’s in terms of actual abuse, rather than micro-aggressions that you get every day undermining you generally, it’s definitely a heightened sense of anxiety. If I see something that’s particularly threatening then it makes me worry about my family, and worry about all the other sort of young women of colour that might be consuming it when they look at my articles and things. You kind of feel that responsibility.”

The sort of messages that had become familiar to women of colour in parliament were alien to white male colleagues, said Ghahraman.

“I don’t think you can know. And I think the other thing that we’ve talked about, or at least I’ve talked about with both Louisa [Wall] and Marama [Davidson] is that it hardens you, and how to combat that. And so, you kind of, you bring that armour that you’ve had to put up, and that kind of lowered … I don’t have any emotional reserves some days, because I’m consuming all of that …There’s that whole thing where we’re trying to balance out having that exterior shell and having the defence mechanisms, but then not allowing that to change who you are.”

Research has established that people of colour are “experiencing micro aggressions in a way that’s causing us mental health harm to the same level as soldiers who are based in combat zones”, said Ghahraman.

“The levels of anxiety and stress of just us living as people of colour in the world are at that level now. And the reason I’m happy that that research exists is because I think that it is really difficult for us to talk about the tiny little ways that we’re all being abused, and not being kind of told that that’s just a one-off, and it’s not racism, it’s not because of this, it’s not because you’re a gay man of colour, it’s actually just you didn’t get the promotion.

“So, we can go, ‘Actually, this collective gas lighting can end. Can it please end?’ It is happening.”

The full interview will screen as part of the next episode of On the Rag, made with the support of New Zealand On Air. View them here