Destiny Church leader Brian Tamaki denies knowing about mosque protest

Controversial Christian leader Brian Tamaki says he wasn't aware members of his church had protested outside the Christchurch mosque where 42 people were killed a month earlier.

About 70 to 100 people from two Destiny Church groups - Man Up and Legacy - gathered outside Christchurch's Al Noor Mosque on April 25 to declare "Jesus Christ is the true God".

Destiny Church Christchurch senior pastor Derek Tait said at the time his group had gathered across the road in Hagley Park with megaphones to respectfully disagree with the Muslim community's beliefs.

"If I stand in public and I say I disagree with something or someone, that does not mean it's hate," he said.

However, the protest drew criticism with former Green MP Catherine Delahunty among those urging the church to show respect and "leave the Muslim community alone" so close to the tragic mosque attacks on March 15.

Destiny Church Bishop Tamaki last night denied knowing about the protests before they took place.

"They decided to do that on their own steam," he told television programme Q+A.

"I probably wouldn't have done it at that time so that's my take on it. But they did it and we've talked to them about it and it's over."

Tamaki also stood firm on his stance the church had formally applied to run its Man Up prisoner rehabilitation programme inside Kiwi prisons.

He earlier warned of revolts inside prisons if the Government continued to deny his church access to run its programme.

But Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis and the Corrections Department said the church had never even made an application to run the courses inside Corrections' facilities.

Tamaki told Q+A last night he had spoken with Government ministers but had no luck.

"Tenders weren't available when we went to make the application, so we talked face to face with the ministers," he said.

Not Fake news at all - this is them at Hagley Park 😓 pic.twitter.com/ML8ymHnBX3

— Paul Barlow (@Ceriphinz) April 25, 2019

He said Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters and Justice Minister Andrew Little had both approached Davis, but that Davis wasn't interested.

"[Peters and Little] were mystified why Kelvin wouldn't receive the formal approaches," Tamaki said.

"They even advised them that they should look at Man Up because it's a very successful programme."

He said he may consider going back into politics if not enough was done to address the high number of Māori in prison.

"Maybe I'll have to ring my mate Hone Harawira up in the North and say brother, we might have to take this electorate," he said.