KEY POINTS:
Independent MP Gordon Copeland says he was thrown a "curve ball" over the way the leadership of the new Christian party was announced and he has given no guarantees he will stick with it.
He said yesterday's announcement of the leadership, which he wasn't told about, made the party look shambolic and "Mickey Mouse".
Mr Copeland also likened events yesterday to Prime Minister Helen Clark being ambushed by TV3's John Campbell over Corngate, during the 2002 election campaign.
Destiny Church leader Bishop Tamaki and Richard Lewis, leader of the political wing Destiny New Zealand, yesterday announced that Destiny NZ was deregistering as a political party in favour of a united Christian vehicle.
They also revealed Mr Lewis would be co-leader but left Mr Copeland out of the loop, meaning the MP had to hastily organise a press conference to tell journalists he was the other co-leader.
The MP met for two hours today with Mr Lewis and said Mr Lewis had "profusely apologised" for his "error of judgement" in not telling the MP about the announcement, despite giving an undertaking he would do so.
"Not since Helen Clark had the Corngate thing and the ambush with John Campbell has any MP that I know of been delivered a curve ball like that one," he said.
When it was suggested this did not augur well for future relationships, Mr Copeland said: "You can say that again."
The deal with the new party had to be "worked through".
"I'm in damage control at the moment. This has not gone down well as you might imagine for a whole variety of reasons. It all looks Mickey Mouse and shambolic and that's not the way that we had planned it and it should never have happened."
Asked whether he would call it quits with Destiny New Zealand, Mr Copeland said: "No decisions have been made at this point in time. As I've said we've got a process to work through, we've got people to talk to and people to listen to.
"You never rule anything out in politics."
The announcement over the co-leadership was supposed to have been done "the other side of Christmas".
The decision to use the co-leader model came out of meetings between a group of church leaders in Auckland.
Mr Tamaki said people from within the Anglican, Catholic, Presbyterian, Methodist, Evangelical and Pentecostal churches were involved in setting up the party.
The party's national advisory council was a group of "seasoned" church leaders from different denominations who were involved as individuals rather than speaking for their respective denominations.
The Salvation Army today put out a statement saying it was not a member of the party's national advisory council and that it took a strictly apolitical stance.
The Salvation Army's territorial commander Commissioner Garth McKenzie said Mr Copeland had written to him in July and August asking if the Salvation Army would join the advisory council.
Mr Copeland said he understood "totally" the Salvation Army's position.
Most church leaders could not become a patron of a political party and at the same time fulfil their pastoral duties because members of their congregations would vote for all the parties.
"We'll probably get a layman from the Salvation Army to come on board at some stage," he said.
But it had "not crossed my mind" to ask the Exclusive Brethren, he said.
UnitedFuture leader Peter Dunne, whose party Mr Copeland quit earlier, said the whole thing was "amusing to watch".
"But frankly anything that involved Tamaki and the black shirts is doomed to fail."
If it survived, it would take votes off National.
"I think there's a real risk to National here. I think that National's got to be very careful that it doesn't get portrayed as being in league with the Brethren at the last election and in league with Destiny at the next one," Mr Dunne said.
- NZPA
