Hannah Tamaki is an inspirational New Zealand Political Leader

Hannah Tamaki has proven time and time again that she can certainly rise to the occasion and lead with strength, respect, empathy and strong on family values. According to Dr Peter Lineham, she's a razor-sharp thinker and an efficient behind-the-scenes operator. She's been the driving force behind much of the Destiny movement and is fiercely protective of her husband, she is also a forceful preacher and her social media accounts make it clear she has strong political opinions, she is concerned about child poverty and children being taken away from their families.

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. Her Māori mum Polly walked out when Hannah was young, leaving her to act as a mother figure to her younger siblings. Her romance with Brian Tamaki began in 1976, having just turned 15. The pair's first daughter, Jasmine, was born when Hannah was 18 and Brian was 20. Jasmine was born two months premature, and was in hospital for months. The couple have three children and six grandchildren.

At Easter, 1979, both Hannah and Brian converted to Christianity at an evangelistic meeting at Turangawaewae marae at Ngaruawahia. They were married in 1980 and soon began Bible training. By the mid-1980s Brian had become a pastor in the Apostolic tradition, with Hannah at his side. They worked in small churches in Te Awamutu and Rotorua before breaking away from the Apostolic denomination in 1994, creating what would eventually become Destiny Church. Hannah has been central to the fortunes of Destiny as it grew to become a mega-church with branches around New Zealand. She is a senior minister in the church and often preaches at meetings.

In 1998, the Tamakis moved to Auckland and established City Church Auckland, which opened on 4 July. Hannah served as the "business brains" of Destiny Church, and frequently leads worship at the Church and receives 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.

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. 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.

Hannah started a 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.

In May 2011, Hannah Tamaki campaigned for the presidency of the Māori Women's Welfare League. Former League president Christine Panapa objected to Tamaki's candidacy and the League distributed voting papers without Hannah Tamaki's name on them. In July 2011, Hannah Tamaki challenged the Māori Women's Welfare League's actions at the High Court. Hannah welcomed the Court's decision reinstating her on the League's ballot. Tamaki was unsuccessful during the 2011 leadership election, with Kataraina O'Brien being elected as the League's president. The League subsequently revised its policies allowing its National Executive the power to vet presidential and vice-presidential nominations as well as membership applicants.

On 23 May 2019, Hannah and her husband Brian announced the launch of a new political party called "Coalition New Zealand." Hannah was confirmed as the leader of the new party, which she described as "a party not just for Christians but for everyone who feels frustrated with the current government." In August 2019, the Electoral Commission declined to register the new party on the grounds that its name and logo was likely to mislead voters. In October 2019, the party announced a new name, Vision NZ, and a new logo, and was registered with the Electoral Commission. During the 2020 election, Vision New Zealand received 4,236 party votes (or 0.1% of the popular vote) and failed to win any seats in Parliament. Hannah Tamaki herself secured 1,171 votes in the Waiariki electorate, coming third place behind the Māori Party's Rawiri Waititi and Labour's Tāmati Coffey.

In December 2019, the New Zealand Government appointed Hannah Tamaki as a Justice of the Peace.

On 23 February 2020, The New Zealand Herald reported that Hannah Tamaki was tipped to join the dancing television show Dancing with the Stars. After a major backlash online, MediaWorks New Zealand confirmed that Hannah Tamaki would no longer be joining the series.

In March 2021, Hannah and Brian attracted media attention after the couple left Auckland while the region was under an Alert Level 2 lockdown and visited Rotorua before traveling to Te Anau in the South Island.

In late October 2021, Hanah Tamaki addressed a crowd of 5,000 anti-lockdown protesters who gathered at the Auckland Museum in the Auckland Domain. She claimed that residents of Auckland were being held prisoner and argued that people had the right to choose to be vaccinated. Hannah Tamaki spoke in the absence of her husband Brian, who had previously been arrested for leading two anti-lockdown protests in Auckland and was on bail pending trial. Tamaki later led a march outside a police station calling for the release of Brian from his bail conditions.

Brian Tamaki was charged with two counts of failing to comply with a COVID-19 order and appeared in court on 1 April 2022. On 17 January 2022, Hannah Tamaki's husband Brian was arrested and remanded at Mount Eden Correctional Facility for violating his bail conditions by attending the Christchurch protest.