A war of words is escalating between Minister of Corrections Kelvin Davis and head of Destiny Church Brian Tamaki, with Tamaki threatening to cause “inmates in every prison” if his ManUp programme isn’t allowed in prisons.
This morning at Newsroom: Davis knocks down Destiny’s ‘Man Up’ programme
Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis has stamped out any hope Brian Tamaki may have held of winning government funding to deliver his Man Up programme in prisons.
The Destiny Church founder has been vocal about what he says is the success of the 15-week programme to help “dysfunctional” men with a record of violent offending and addiction.
Tamaki has repeatedly criticised the Government for not funding him to deliver his programme in New Zealand prisons, despite never making a formal application as part of the Corrections tender process.
In December last year, Tamaki marched on Parliament with about 2000 supporters, talking about the high rates of Māori recidivism and touting his programme as a way to reduce Māori reoffending and incarceration rates.
“For all of my efforts to try and get into prison, they shut us down,” he said, referring to the Government.
Davis said there was no verified, independent research showing the programme has achieved success, and lashed out at Tamaki, calling his claims duplicitous.
He said that, despite what Tamaki claims, Man Up has never been shut out of prisons, and has never followed the proper application process.
Tamaki seems to be fighting an ongoing battle to get Man Up into prisons, and has had varying degrees of success with delivering ad hoc volunteer information services over the years.
But while Davis is the corrections minister, it seems unlikely Man Up will receive any formal government contract to administer its programme.
“Why would Corrections allow a group talking about waging war on society, into a prison,” Davis said, in reference to comments made by Tamaki in the wake of the Christchurch attack.
Davis also said Tamaki had been duplicitous in painting himself as the victim, during the “circus” on Parliament’s forecourt late last year.
“If they’re going to lie about the small stuff, how am I going to trust them with the big stuff?”
Later in the morning:
Davis (@NgatiBird) responded: