Far-Right Hate and Extremist Groups
New Zealand
This report was published on September 9th 2026.
Editor’s Note: GPAHE’s country reports describe active far-right extremist and hate groups (including political parties that meet our criteria) to highlight the growing global threat of far-right extremism and the transnational nature of this movement. This report does not reflect the extent to which individuals may share these beliefs but are not involved in organized entities. It also does not include activities that happen purely online with no real-world presence. You can read more about how we classify far-right extremist groups and the purpose of these reports.
New Zealand was the last major land mass to be settled by European colonizers, with Polynesians having arrived there in the 1300s, establishing the Māori culture. In 1769, the British explorer Captain James Cook became the first European to set foot on and map New Zealand. In 1840, representatives of the British Empire and Māori chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi, which paved the way for Britain’s establishment of the Colony of New Zealand in 1841. In the following years, a series of complicated and violent conflicts between the colonial government and various Māori tribes led to large scale confiscation of Indigenous lands and mass violence against the Māori.
Long History of Racism Against Māori
The history of racism and other forms of hatred in New Zealand (Aotearoa in Māori) is rooted in British colonial policy and rule, land dispossession, and systemic discrimination against the Māori and later Asian and Pacific Island immigrants. While often promoted as a land of racial harmony today, New Zealand’s history, like many other British colonies, is actually one of brutal segregation, racism, anti-immigrant policies, and punishing assimilation for Indigenous peoples. It is also marked by white supremacist movements and organizing starting in the late 1800s. This legacy continues to affect New Zealand today as institutional inequities rooted in that history persist, and the country still has active white supremacist movements and racially-inspired violence. Most notable was the devastating mosque attacks in 2019 by a white supremacist, which left 51 dead.
Considerable racism and dispossession were directed at the Indigenous population, which had come to New Zealand long before Europeans arrived. The mix of forced assimilation policies and racist segregation mirror the American treatment of both its Indigenous Indian population and people of color, particularly Black people. There are also parallels with Australia’s horrific treatment of the Aboriginal population and Canada’s history of oppression against Indigenous peoples.
In 1840, New Zealand’s population included about 90,000 Māori and about 2,000 non-Māori. This population distribution was reversed in subsequent decades, after the British took over the colony. The Māori population, ravaged by European diseases and the New Zealand Wars, reached its lowest level in 1896, when the census recorded just 42,113 people. The non-Māori population grew to greatly outnumber Māori, and the government came to regard British traditions and culture as dominant and superior. All other cultures (not just Māori) were expected to be assimilated into British and, by assumption, white culture.
The Crown purchased large tracts of land in the 1840s and 1850s, confiscated more after a very complicated series of wars in the 1860s, separating many Māori from their lands. The Native Land Court system of the 1860s replaced collective tribal land ownership with individual titles. This made land much easier for the colonists to pick off, weakening community authority. Without land and its resources to sustain them, Māori were more susceptible to disease and poverty.
The Crown intentionally separated those who remained though policies intended to wipe out their language, customs, and Indigenous knowledge. As early as 1847, Governor George Grey prioritized teaching in English to wipe out native language. The Native Schools Act of 1867, and subsequent policies, enforced English-only instruction. These policies actively discouraged or punished children for speaking Māori, treating it as inferior to an “English” education. The impact of these policies was significant: while 90 percent of Māori schoolchildren could speak Māori in 1913, only 26 percent could by 1953.
De Facto Racial Segregation
Although racial segregation was never legally sanctioned in New Zealand, it was de facto the case in many communities up until the 1960s. This long period of segregation has deep similarities to the oppression faced by Black populations in the U.S. during the same period. There were regional differences in how the Indigenous population was treated, but generally segregation and oppression were common.
For example, in Pukekohe, just south of Auckland, from 1925 to the early 1960s, Māori faced overt discrimination. They were forced to sit in designated sections of theaters away from white patrons; barbers refused to cut their hair, and one had a “Māori-only chair” to allay customer fears of catching a disease; Māori were only allowed to use the school swimming pools on Fridays, after which the water was changed; businesses refused to let Māori use their public toilets; and Māori were forced to stand for white bus passengers, a direct similarity to American segregationist policies in public transportation that led to the Montgomery, Ala., bus boycott after Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat.
Like the U.S. where white families fought desegregation of schooling, between 1952 and 1964, a racially segregated school was opened in Pukekohe after white parents complained that their kids had to sit next to Māori in class. Māori were denied access to housing and forced to live in slums that often consisted of stacked benzine cans, burlap sacks, and converted manure sheds, with no running water or toilets. As a result, hundreds of Māori infants and children died of preventable diseases linked to their unfit housing.
The abuse of Māori children was especially horrific. In 2018, a royal commission was established to investigate child abuse in state and faith-based care. The commission estimated that about 655,000 people were in care settings in New Zealand since the 1950s, and up to 256,000 may have been abused. In the 1970s, most children taken into state care were Māori. According to the royal commission’s findings, Māori just a few years ago made up 69 percent of children in care and 81 percent of the children abused in care, despite making up only 16 percent of the population.
These abuses were particularly notable due to efforts aimed at erasing Māori culture. In 2024, New Zealand’s Prime Minister Christopher Luxon made a “formal and unreserved” apology in Parliament for the widespread abuse, torture, and neglect of hundreds of thousands of children in care. New Zealand’s government agreed in 2024 that historical treatment of some children in a notorious state-run hospital amounted to torture — a claim successive administrations had rejected.
Anti-Immigrant Fervor
Given this history, it is no surprise that New Zealand, like other British territories including the U.S., Australia, Canada, and others, has a long track record of white supremacist activity. In 1857, the earliest Anti-Chinese League was formed in Nelson, even before the first Chinese immigrants arrived in the country. By the late 1880s, branches of the movement emerged in cities like Dunedin and Wellington. They successfully pressured the government to pass the Chinese Immigrants Act of 1881, which made entry extremely difficult via a strict poll tax. Anti-Chinese sentiment was surging in the U.S. at about the same time, with the Chinese Exclusion Act passing in 1882.
The Anti-Asiatics Leagues emerged in the early 1900s, expanding the focus beyond Chinese populations to other Asians and Middle Easterners. The group lobbied for literacy requirements, resulting in an English reading test requirement in 1907 aimed at blocking non-white immigrants.
More white supremacist groups would arise throughout the 1900s. Examples include the White New Zealand League, a fiercely anti-Asian pressure group formed in 1925. The group aimed to mirror white nationalist policies found in Australia and the United States to keep New Zealand racially “pure.” It wanted to stop what it viewed as rising competition from Asian farmers and businesses in the Auckland region, even though there were only, in 1926, 17 Indian and 30 Chinese residents. Despite these tiny numbers, the League successfully stoked xenophobic fears that Asian communities would completely overwhelm the country.
The League published a pamphlet in 1926 arguing that a “white New Zealand” was a birthright to be maintained for future generations. The pamphlet falsely accused Asian immigrants of posing a sexual threat to European women and that minority communities endangered public hygiene and contributed to a general degradation of society.
White New Zealand League pamphlet cover. (Source: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand).
The League’s influence spread rapidly to Auckland, Wellington, and other regions. Newspapers amplified the group’s xenophobic and hateful messaging. For example, the Franklin Times published warnings of an impending Asian invasion and claimed that darker-skinned migrants were incapable of civilization. These views framed Indians and Chinese as fundamentally incompatible with New Zealand, meaning white, society. Leaders across social and political spheres echoed such messages, reinforcing the League’s claim that the country must be kept white.
Though the group itself was short-lived, becoming largely inactive by 1937, it did achieve significant mainstream political influence. It attracted vocal support from major civic leaders and national politicians, including Prime Minister Gordon Coates (1925-1928).
White Nationalism Ascendant
There were other similar groups that arose in the following years. In the 1960s, the New Zealand National Front was established, based on the British neo-fascist organization of the same name. Vehemently anti-immigrant, it promoted the preservation of white, European culture. In 1968, one of its activists Colin King-Ansell was jailed for an attack on a synagogue. The following year, he established the National Socialist Party of New Zealand and contested a number of elections. Later, he led a group called the National Socialist White People’s Party, modeled after the American Nazi Party established by George Lincoln Rockwell in the U.S. In 1977, King-Ansell was convicted of racial incitement and jailed for three months for distributing several thousand antisemitic leaflets. The sentence was reduced to a $400 fine following an appeal in 1979.
The League of Rights, an Australian organization that rose to prominence in the 1970s with about 1,000 members, spread antisemitic conspiracies. The White Defense League operated in the South Island during the 1970s and 1980s. The group was deeply hostile to Indigenous rights and racial integration and spread conspiracies about a “One World Government,” which were also popular with American militia, anti-government, and racist groups at the time.
As Māori increasingly asserted their rights through the 1970s, and the anti-apartheid movement gained strength in the late 1970s and early 1980s, white-supremacist groups increased. They included New Order and the European Liberation Front. Nationally, other groups such as New Force, the New Zealand–Rhodesia Society, and Friends of South Africa argued for the continued supremacy of whites in New Zealand, South Africa, and what was then Rhodesia.
More such racist groups emerged in the 1990s, including The Fourth Reich, members of which were responsible for brutal ideologically-motivated murders. Unit 88, a neo-Nazi group of that era, distributed hate material and performed Nazi salutes. In 1997, the New Zealand Fascist Union was founded by Colin King-Ansel to move white supremacy into the political realm. Modeled on 20th century European fascist movements, the group claimed substantial membership but never registered as a political party.
The Rise of Kyle Chapman
In the early 2000s, New Zealand’s white supremacist landscape shifted with a revival of the New Zealand National Front (NZNF), which far-right figure Kyle Chapman, a founding member of the New Zealand Hammerskins, took over as the director. Chapman, who has a track record of criminal activity, attempted to clean up the public image of white nationalism—moving it away from swastikas and prison violence toward flag-waving “patriotic” politics. The peak of the NZNF’s public notoriety occurred on October 23, 2004, when the group organized a controversial rally outside Parliament in Wellington to “protect the New Zealand flag.” The event drew massive anti-racism counter-protests that heavily outnumbered the National Front members, resulting in clashes and arrests.
Following internal fractures within the NZNF, Chapman left the group in 2005. In 2009, Chapman established the Right Wing Resistance (RWR), a neo-Nazi skinhead organization. The organization engaged in vigilante street patrols and distributed racist fliers in cities throughout New Zealand. During the 2011 general election, the group disrupted candidate meetings while wearing military-style uniforms.
This era also saw the rise of international skinhead groups, like the Hammerskins, organizing in New Zealand. And as the internet became more networked and social media grew, racial extremists in New Zealand joined thousands from around the world in online networks. Hate crimes were a continuing problem, though not officially tracked by the government until after the Christchurch attack. In 2004 Jewish gravestones were smashed in Wellington’s Bolton Street cemetery. Then more than 80 headstones at Makara cemetery near Wellington were toppled and the Jewish prayer house was burnt down. These actions prompted a unanimous cross-party resolution in Parliament condemning the desecration.
The Christchurch Massacre
In 2019, Christchurch was the site of a devastating terrorist attack by white supremacist Brenton Tarrant, who was born in Australia. Radicalized online and close to Australian neo-Nazi groups, Tarrant opened fire on worshipers at two mosques in Christchurch in March 2019, killing 51 and wounding dozens more. Before he carried out and livestreamed the attack, Tarrant created a manifesto called “The Great Replacement,” a reference to the white supremacist conspiracy theory that argues white people are being overtaken by immigrants, refugees and other non-white populations in an intentional plot, often blamed on Jews or globalists. Before the attack, white supremacists inspired by the same twisted idea had killed dozens of teenagers in Norway and worshipers in a Pittsburgh synagogue.
Many more attacks fueled by this concept were to come, making the Great Replacement conspiracy theory the most deadly white supremacist idea.
Before the shooting, Tarrant uploaded a post to 8chan, an anonymous online message board filled with extremists. It read: “Well lads, it’s time to stop shitposting and time to make a real life effort post.” It was posted shortly before he live-streamed his massacre on Facebook. He added a request: “Please do your part by spreading my message, making memes and shitposting as you usually do.”
The extremists complied. The horrific video was widely spread by fellow travelers online, who proceeded to re-post it to sites like Facebook and YouTube. More than 1.5 million copies of the video were uploaded to Facebook within 24 hours, with 300,000 bypassing its filter to protect users as young as 13 from such content. YouTube did not release numbers, but told the Guardian the uploading was “unprecedented both in scale and speed — at times as fast as a new upload every second.”
The Reckoning
This devastating attack became a wake-up call for the New Zealand government on the dangers of white supremacy. A formal Royal Commission was established to investigate the attack and suggest policy changes in its wake. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern declared the atrocity “one of New Zealand’s darkest days” and a well-planned “terrorist attack”. She famously stated of the victims, “They are us,” emphasizing national unity, empathy, and inclusion for the Muslim community. She would go on to co-found, with the French government, the Christchurch Call, an effort that several countries and tech companies signed on to make sure terrorist content is removed swiftly from the internet (GPAHE is a member of Christchurch’s advisory network).
The commission’s report, Ko tō tātou kāinga tēnei (“This is our home”), released on December 8, 2020, concluded that New Zealand security agencies and police missed critical warning signs and failed to properly enforce firearms licensing. It pointed to several failings: Counter-terrorism resources were “almost exclusively” focused on the threat of Islamist terrorism, leading to a slow and inadequate understanding of the growing threat of extreme right-wing domestic terrorism; secrecy surrounding counter-terrorism operations, and a reluctance to alienate or stigmatize communities hindered open communication and visibility on vulnerabilities; and the inquiry found that prior indicators—such as the terrorist’s accidental self-inflicted gunshot wound treated at a hospital months before the attack—were not formally reported or flagged by fragmented bureaucratic systems.
The report recommended, among its nearly 50 suggestions, improvements to firearms licensing, establishing a dedicated, unified national intelligence and security agency, alongside clearer ministerial accountability and updated counter-terror/hate crime laws, and emphasized better government leadership in embracing diversity, improving social inclusion, and actively tracking and combating hate speech and hate crimes.
Changes soon came. Though New Zealand has no hate crime statute, but hate motivations can lead to stiffer sentences, after the attack the police began tracking hate-motivated offenses. Between January 2022 and April 2023, Asian and South Asian people were the targets of more than 2,000 of the almost 7,000 hate-driven crimes. People of African and Middle Eastern backgrounds were the targets of hundreds of hate-motivated crimes in that period, at a rate vastly disproportionate to the size of their populations. Muslims and Jewish people were disproportionately targeted in attacks motivated by religion. LGBTQ+ people were also frequently targeted, with 561 offenses directed at gay or lesbian people. In recent years, the country has seen an uptick in anti-LGBTQ+ organizing and hate crimes, which is at least partly blamed on rising homophobia in the U.S. spilling over borders.
Military-style semi-automatic weapons and assault rifles were banned. Measures and funding were put in place to protect Islamic centers and mosques. And the government emphasized national unity, inclusion, and direct support for the Muslim community. Ardern also directly spoke to the problem of white supremacy, promising to “weed out” racism and publicly stating that “New Zealand is not free of those groups who define themselves as extremist white supremacists, those groups exist here,” emphasizing the country had much more work to do on that front.
Though a relatively small country with about five million residents, it has seen white supremacist organizing. New Zealand has in recent years banned as terrorist organizations major white supremacist groups including the neo-Nazi Base, whose leader is in Russia but was founded in the U.S., and the American Proud Boys, many of whose leaders were prosecuted for their key roles in the January 6 insurrection and then later pardoned by President Trump.
There have been other forms of confronting the country’s past as well. Beginning in the 1990s with settlements like the Tainui and Ngāi Tahu claims, the government began formally apologizing and making reparations for illegal land confiscations, warfare, and breaches of the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi. In 2022, Ardern delivered a formal apology for long-term Crown violations and prejudice against the iwi, one of the Māori kinship groups. Also, in 2020, media giant Stuff, which owns the Dominion Post and The Press, formally apologized for anti-Māori coverage in its newspapers dating back 160 years. And even with the challenges noted here, New Zealand scores 99 out of a hundred on Freedom House’s measurements of protections of political rights and civil liberties,
This report most certainly underestimates the actual number of far-right hate and extremist groups in New Zealand and does not reflect the extent to which individuals may share these beliefs but are not involved in organized entities. It also does not include activities that happen purely online with no real-world presence. Cities marked with an asterisk indicate an organization’s headquarters where it has more than one chapter. GPHAE does not link to hate sites and forums cited in this report.
New Zealand Group Descriptions
Action Zealandia (AZ)
Location: Christchurch, Nelson/Marlborough, Wellington
Ideology: White Nationalist, Neo-Nazi, Anti-Immigrant, Anti-Muslim, Anti-LGBTQ+, Anti-Māori
Action Zealandia is a successor organization to the Dominion Movement. The Dominion Movement was an NZ-based far-right organization formed in February 2018 that described itself as a “brotherhood of nationalists committed to the revitalization of European culture and identity in New Zealand.” Purportedly modeled on the Patriot Front in the U.S. and Australia’s neo-Nazi Antipodean Resistance, the Dominion Movement promoted Identitarian ideology, focusing on anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim rhetoric and actions. They were early adopters of the “keep fit” aesthetic. They took part in public rallies, stickering, and poster campaigns, with branches in major cities including Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch. After the March 15, 2019, attacks in Christchurch, the Dominion Movement disappeared – members were outed by the media and investigated by security agencies. Increased scrutiny after the Christchurch shooting meant far-right groups in New Zealand had to be more careful about their public-facing image, sanitizing some of their content and using aliases.
In August 2019, Action Zealandia launched publicly through an anonymous post on 4chan (five months after the Christchurch attacks). Despite protests to the contrary, leaked documents indicated there was overlap of membership between Dominion Movement and Action Zealandia, and such members were instructed to lie about these connections. Action Zealandia has restricted its membership to “physically fit, tidy European male[s] of sound mind and good character.” Action Zealandia has also attracted media attention after a member made an online threat against Christchurch’s Al Noor Mosque, attempted to start a terror cell, and purchased weapons.
Action Zealandia continued the ideological legacy of the Dominion Movement, drawing inspiration from other international neo-Nazi groups such as the American Rise Above Movement and the Nordic Resistance Movement. They believe in white genocide and great replacement theory, consider themselves protectors of western civilization and European New Zealanders. During the pandemic, they spread misinformation about vaccines, claiming they were developed by Jewish people to sterilize and depopulate the planet, furthering their commitment to the white genocide conspiracy theory. They are anti-LGBTQ+ with particular focus on the transgender community and espouse anti-immigrant and anti-Māori rhetoric.
AZ’s website outlines five ideals that guide their organization: self-improvement, New Zealand European identity, community building, nationalism, and sustainability. They conduct stickering campaigns, organize hiking trips and fitness sessions, and civic actions such as trash cleanups, all with the intention of bolstering group relationships and creating content to be shared in digital spaces. Action Zealandia has also conducted several banner drops in public spaces like highway bridges and war memorials, using slogans including “End Mass Migration,” “Boycott China, Support Local,” and “Our People – Our Future.” Women are not permitted to join the organization.
The group has limited public content praising Hitler and the Nazis openly, but there are several images of members giving Roman salutes and a Telegram post celebrating the Beer Hall Putsch. They have praised Mussolini and other fascists including Romanian Corneliu Codreanu. An academic that infiltrated the group reports that members read texts including Hitler’s Mein Kampf. Multiple posts on their Telegram channel promote antisemitism and Holocaust denial.
Their Telegram channels have been filled with hateful messages. Examples include: “Mass immigration has destroyed our country in a fraction of a lifetime;” “Brown sexual violence has a long precedent in our country and is increasingly an undertone of life for New Zealanders/Zealandians in this multiracial mess that has been dropped on us… The White Nationalist movement in New Zealand stands firmly against these disgusting crimes against our people;” “In further LGBT news, a study designed to give academic support to pedo decriminalisation has been pulled after successful community self-defense… This was always the direction that queer liberation was going, ever since Jews in corduroy suits through the ideas up in Berlin and San Francisco smokerooms, and CIA/OSS offices;” “Unprovoked maori attacks are all too common in our schools. If you’re a father, teach your sons and your daughters how to fight – they’re going to need it;” and “No New Zealander in their right mind wants troons speaking to their children and attempting to push their disgusting sexual perversions on them.”
Action Zealandia are careful about their image, and endeavor not to explicitly advocate for violence or to publicize illegal activities. AZ’s website describes them as a “movement of young nationalists dedicated to the revitalization of our people, culture, environment and community,” and that they “seek change via education.” However, an undercover investigation by a student journalist for the Otago University magazine Critic Te Arohi found “members were unabashed in their praise for the Christchurch shooter,” corroborated by another investigation that found members wishing each other a “Happy Saint Tarrant’s Day”. An interview with the student journalist revealed that “they told me that Action Zealandia did make efforts to maintain a facade of non-violence, condemning members who engaged in violence without the backing of the organisation, but there is an underlying, inherent violence within its end goal.” Purportedly, a code of conduct was published in 2020 “which disallowed any threats of violence or objectionable material.” However, a study on Action Zealandia makes the significant point that while “Action Zealandia may continue to espouse non-violent actions through its official communications, its actions and content may nonetheless provide the ideological context for individual radicalization toward violent extremism.”
Action Zealandia have multiple international connections, evidenced through their podcast interviews with leaders and members of La Rete (Italy), Patriotic Alternative (UK), New British Union (UK), Nordic Resistance Movement (Scandinavia), Australian Action (Australia), National Justice Party (USA) and Rise Above Movement’s Robert Rundo. They are also highly supportive of Australian-based neo-Nazis including Blair Cottrell and Thomas Sewell, and the now defunct National Socialist Network. They see themselves as part of an international network of far-right organizations.
At least three individuals with ties to the New Zealand Defense Force have been linked to Action Zealandia. One individual planned to purchase firearms on the black market and start a terror cell, and reportedly communicated with Atomwaffen Division and Nordic Resistance Movement. James Fairburn, an army reservist, was reported to have attended early Action Zealandia events and used Discord to communicate on far-right channels (an undercover investigation claimed he was the leader at one point). Action Zealandia claimed responsibility for vandalizing an MP’s office in Nelson in February 2020, with material described as anti-Chinese, and promoting New Zealand’s European identity.
There has been no activity on Action Zealandia’s public-facing Telegram channels since December 2025. In April 2026, White New Zealand’s Telegram channel announced, “New Zealand’s nationalist groups across the country have joined together under the flag of White New Zealand.” This effort described itself as split into three regions – Northern Column, Central Column (which seemingly was the Wellington chapter of Action Zealandia previously), and Southern Column. White New Zealand appears to be a repurposed Telegram channel that previously promoted Action Zealandia.
Destiny Church (DC)
Location: Auckland,* Christchurch, Hamilton, Nelson, Rotorua, Tauranga, Wellington, Whakatane, Gold Coast, Australia, North Brisbane, Australia
Ideology: Anti-Immigrant, Anti-Muslim, Anti-LGBTQ+, Religious Nationalist
Brian Tamaki is a well-known Christian fundamentalist who promotes anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant, and anti-LGBTQ+ beliefs. He has aligned himself with far-right figures including the UK anti-Muslim activist Tommy Robinson and other anti-immigrant groups. Tamaki is a self-proclaimed apostle who founded Destiny Church (DC) with his wife, Pastor Hannah Tamaki, in 1998. Destiny Church, which has branches across New Zealand and is headquartered in Auckland, also operates an Australian entity with two chapters, run by his son and daughter-in-law. The church preaches fundamentalist Pentecostal beliefs. Tamaki has led multiple political parties and runs various movements, and he sits at the helm of a complex web of charities, organizations, trusts, and entities.
Tamaki has a history within the Apostolic church community in New Zealand, leading several churches before relocating to Auckland to start Destiny Church. He also launched Destiny Television, a Christian TV program that spread the message of the Church to communities across New Zealand. The Church has expanded in membership, with over 2,000 members reported in 2019 (although Tamaki claimed more than 6,000 in 2024).
Tamaki is of Māori heritage, and Destiny Church’s congregation is majority Māori and Pacifika. However, he has been accused of co-opting and even hijacking Māori culture to use as an “instrument of intimidation,” particularly through the use of haka, a traditional ceremonial dance of the Māori, at protests. He also conflates Māori cultural identity with religion, calling for Christianity to be New Zealand’s official religion. His rhetoric is highly inflammatory and has become increasingly violent and militant in nature. Posts advertising a Destiny Church event in May 2024 featured a boy carrying a severed head – an apparent reference to David and Goliath – and bearing the tagline “Time to kill.”
Tamaki has a long history of making racist and inflammatory comments. Among them: “Islam is not just another belief system. It is a religion that hates Christianity and seeks to replace it… It is Christianity vs Islam. Jesus vs Muhammad. Good vs Evil;” “Muslims are destroying Christian Western countries. In the UK, there have been over one million rapes of white British girls by Muslim rape gangs – with these Muslims boasting that British girls are ‘easy meat;’” “THIS IS HOW THE WEST FALLS. Not by bombs. Not by bullets. But by religious invasions and cultural surrender. The greatest threat facing New Zealand today is not military invasion. It’s the slow creep and cultural collapse of a nation from within. You can’t fight religious invasions with secular powers. Only Christianity can defeat foreign religions;” “Indian candidates are appearing all over Auckland and other City in ‘What once was New Zealand;’” “This is not about Race, Hate or Ethnicity… This is about An Invasion of an incompatible Culture and Religion that never had any intention of Assimilating into our way of Life. Islam and Indian Religions are Subjugating the West without a single Bullet or Bomb fired;” “Sexual Deviancy, Sexual Violence and Rape has escalated in New Zealand since the Government has opened the Flood Gates to Mass Migration from India;” and, in reference to Tamaki’s belief that the government tolerates the LGBTQ+ community, “Oh, man. If it goes any further, I mean, why you might have to have a meteorite, it might have to burn down Parliament. I shouldn’t have said that. But, if you’re targeting my children, Mr. Luxon, Seymour and Peters, and you did nothing about it, well, I’ll have to burn it down.”
Tamaki has led various protests against LGBTQ+ people, Muslims, immigrants and those he considers “woke” in recent years. In February 2025, he led anti-Pride protests that included storming a rainbow story time at a library in Auckland. Protesters performed a haka, wore t-shirts promoting the “Man Up” movement, and held banners including two that said, “There are only 2 genders” and “Woman is not a costume.” Children and adults at the event had to be barricaded into a room at the library for their safety. Tamaki claimed in a sermon following the incident that he had instructed the protesters to “storm the library… and shut it down.” Later that day, the group also disrupted a pride parade in Auckland, again performing a haka.
On June 21, 2025, a protest led by Tamaki was held in Auckland and attended by approximately 500 people. Flags were torn bearing the words including: “Islam,” “Palestine,” “Khalistan,” “Sikh,” “Buddhism,” “Hindu,” “United Nations,” “World Health Organization,” “World Economic Forum,” “No Religion,” “Rainbow,” “Transgender,” and an image of former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s book cover. The protest was livestreamed by Tamaki and was arranged in loose military formation at points, with instructions for marching. Chants included “Faith, flag, family.” The event was held by Tamaki’s “Make NZ Great Again” movement. Tamaki has drawn on Trump’s terminology on multiple occasions in an attempt to inspire Christian nationalists to join him.
In June 2025, Tamaki announced his support for the UK’s most well-known anti-Muslim bigot, Tommy Robinson, as part of a “global crusade” for Commonwealth nations to restore Christian values and national sovereignty. The crusade included calls to ban the building of mosques, temples, and shrines, ban public prayer from “foreign” religions, ban the burka and halal food, and crackdown on “mass immigration of incompatible faiths.” In September 2025, Tamaki attended Robinson’s “Unite the Kingdom” far-right rally which drew more than 100,000 people to London. He claimed to be joined by 100 people from New Zealand and Australia. They performed a haka at the rally.
In December 2025, a Nagar Kirtan religious procession organized by a Sikh Temple in Auckland was disrupted by a group from True Patriots of NZ, a Tamaki Destiny Church affiliated group. They wore t-shirts with slogans including “Kiwis first,” “Keep NZ, NZ” and a banner reading “This is New Zealand, not India.” Protesters also performed a haka. In January 2026, a similar procession in Tauranga was also disrupted. MP Oriini Kaipara has condemned the use of tikanga Māori by the group (the system of values and principles that shape Māori society), stating that “Haka is not a political tool for harassment. It is a taonga tuku iho, entrusted to us by our tīpuna, grounded in whakapapa, purpose, and wairua.”
In January 2026, Tamaki led a march of approximately 1,000 people to an on ramp for the Auckland Harbour Bridge (a major highway), under the banner of True Patriots of New Zealand. They claimed to be protesting mass immigration. Police blocked the protesters from entering the bridge, but Tamaki labeled the march a success. The group had been denied an application for a permit to march on the bridge, under the banner of the Freedom and Rights Coalition.
On ANZAC day, April 25, 2026, a public holiday that commemorates Australians and New Zealanders who have served and died in the military, Tamaki and True Patriots of NZ held a protest against mass immigration in Auckland. Tamaki claimed they were standing up in honor of ANZAC heroes who fought for New Zealand, contending New Zealand is now being invaded by mass immigration. The organizers created a Facebook event for the protest.
Numerous Destiny Church entities are registered as charities in New Zealand, but many have been deregistered for failing to provide annual tax returns. Two charitable trusts linked to Destiny Church are being liquidated, with initial reports indicating debts of over NZ $5million.
In 2021, Tamaki founded the Freedom & Rights Coalition in response to the New Zealand government’s pandemic restrictions and vaccine mandates. During the pandemic, Tamaki organized and hosted multiple protests where anti-vaccine and anti-government conspiracy theories were promoted, often bringing hundreds of people together in breach of lockdown protocols. In February 2022, a significant protest occupied the grounds of the New Zealand Parliament to protest against mask and vaccine mandates. Attended by approximately 1,000 people over the course of the sit-in, it appeared to be modeled on the Canadian COVID-19 truckers’ convoy. There was no clear leadership within the occupation and it attracted many right-wing conspiratorial groups and individuals, including the Freedom & Rights Coalition. Tamaki was not present as he was on house arrest as part of bail conditions. Tamaki faced multiple criminal charges during the pandemic, including breaching lockdown restrictions. In August 2022, Tamaki led another protest march to Parliament, attended by around 1,500 people that lasted a few hours.
Tamaki has several other initiatives that appear to have crossovers with Destiny Church, although the relationships are often murky. He is seeking financial support for Hands Off Kiwi Kids, a movement to challenge the legality of various measures that he associates with the LGBTQ+ community. Any funds donated will be administered by the team from The Freedom & Rights Coalition. The campaign calls for defunding and abolishing Drag Queen Storytimes in libraries and schools; removing sex ed curriculum from schools; banning puberty blockers; defunding InsideOUT, an LGBTQ+ rights organization that Tamaki claims is “targeting our young with rainbow paraphernalia;” and defunding and removing the “politicized Rainbow movement’s branding and paraphernalia that is paid for with taxpayer & ratepayers’ money trying to rainbow-wash our kids.”
True Patriots of NZ is a group launched in 2025 and led by Tamaki and Destiny Church that claims to be “protecting the kiwi way of life.” They contend they are a movement “standing against globalism, mass immigration, and woke ideology. We fight for a free, Christian New Zealand — bold, united, and unapologetic.”
War on Woke is another initiative from Tamaki – his website offers a contact form for supporters to sign up. Like Hands Off Kiwi Kids, it focuses on demonizing the LGBTQ+ community, as well as politicians that he claims are “anti-family” and “anti-masculinity.” He argues, “Who will protect our kids from Drag Kings & Queens? Who will protect our kids from RSE [sex ed] in schools? Who will protect our kids from puberty blockers? Who will fight to clean up the woke mess? You’re either for me or against me. Choose a side. This is a REVOLUTION — and the world is now watching us down under in NZ.”
Man Up Brotherhood is an initiative run through Destiny Church that purports to “empower men to overcome struggles that they may face in life. We strengthen men to become better fathers, husbands and leaders in their home and community.” They claim to address issues including family violence, anger, mental health, divorce, and addiction. They state there are 300 Man Up groups operating in New Zealand, Australia, and Cambodia. While Man Up purports to be tackling legitimate challenges that New Zealand grapples with, reports from individuals connected to the movement suggest that it has become increasingly violent in nature. Domestic abuse agencies have raised concerns about the promotion of “male dominance and ultra-traditional family values” which can exacerbate domestic violence. Police stopped referring people to the program after attendees at the Auckland Pride protest were seen in Man Up t-shirts.
Radical Youth is Destiny Church’s youth ministry. They offer social activities and religious education for young people aged 13 and older. Members of Radical Youth were reportedly involved in storming the drag story time at Auckland Library in February 2025.
Family First New Zealand (FFNZ)
Location: Manukau
Ideology: Anti-LGBTQ+
Family First New Zealand (FFNZ) was founded in March 2006 by National Director and CEO Bob McCoskrie, a former social worker and radio host. It was formed to champion traditional marriage, promote two-parent family structures, and influence public policy regarding family protection and values, as it saw it. FFNZ operates as an incorporated trust/NGO. It lost its official charitable status following a Supreme Court ruling in 2022, which concluded that its advocacy was discriminatory. The group has more than 3,000 followers on X and 64,000 on Facebook.
The group spearheaded the campaign against same-sex marriage in New Zealand, which passed in 2013. It distributed a booklet, “21 Great Reasons to Keep Marriage as it is,” which heavily criticized same-sex relationships, equating them with incest and pedophilia and denigrated the children of such couples. The pamphlet said same-sex marriage would “open the door for polygamous, polyamorous, and consensual adult incest-type marriages.” It also suggested bestiality could be legal. During a high school event in 2017, McCoskrie compared same-sex marriage to bestiality, and when asked a question about it from a student, he replied, “Well what about polygamy? Do you think people in polygamist relationships should have the right to marry? Are you being polygaphobic right now?” FFNZ also campaigns against same-sex parents raising children.
Excerpt from the FFNZ booklet against same-sex marriage.
In 2022, Family First was deregistered as a charity for pursuing discriminatory aims. Family First argued it was advancing charitable education with its stance that marriage can only be between a man and a woman. New Zealand’s Supreme Court begged to differ: “Its research reports lacked the balance that is required to further an educative purpose. By publishing research reports, hosting conferences, posting information on its website, and suggesting law reforms, it sought to advocate for the adoption of its views concerning the traditional family.” It also said that FFNZ had crossed the line into advocacy and propaganda. “[M]ost of the material put forward by Family First suggests its primary object is to advocate rather than to educate,” its ruling said. From the Supreme Court: “As we see it, pursuing support for the traditional family by advocating against law reform which would recognise or support other forms of family can be seen as discriminatory. Family First’s purposes are themselves discriminatory.”
In court, Family First tried to block a list of posts from its website from being used as evidence, despite referring the Charities Registration Board to its website initially. They included an opinion piece from Stuff, republished by Family First, calling same-sex marriage a “genuine threat to liberty.” Also on the website was Family First’s claims that Pink Shirt Day – a nationwide anti-bullying event and fundraiser – was “a massive cover-up for a pro-LGBT narrative.“
When New Zealand voted to pass a ban on conversion therapy in 2022, the group was a vigorous opponent. FFNZ argued that outlawing the practice, which has been described as akin to torture by a UN rapporteur, would criminalize parents who sought alternatives to medical gender transitions. Like many anti-LGBTQ+ American groups in recent years, FFNZ launched “AskMeFirst” in 2017 to prohibit transgender women from using women’s bathrooms.
FFNZ continues to publish items that disparage the LGBTQ+ community. In June 2023, it described Pride events as “sexualizing our children.” The piece attacked Pride events as “the main method for many schools to pacify the aggressive lobbying groups and cultural evangelists who are targeting schools and children with radical and extreme sexuality and gender ideology in the name of “LGBTQIA+++.”
The group is also against “gender identity” ideologies, sex ed in schools, abortion access, and pornography. Its website has links to various campaigns the group runs on these issues. One page has a list of businesses the group feels are too “woke,” including companies such as Adidas and Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream. Fact sheets cover such things as why hate speech should not be outlawed, the dangers of sex ed, and why conversion therapy should be legal.
National Socialist Faction (NSF)
Location: Nelson-Tasman
Ideology: Neo-Nazi
The National Socialist Faction (NSF) of New Zealand is a neo-Nazi group launched on April 20, 2025 (coinciding with Hitler’s birthday). They claim they are “for the preservation and advancement of the White New Zealand People. Blood and Honour!” They do not share extensive written content or detailed information about their ideological positions, but it is clear they are a neo-Nazi organization.
Their apparent leader “Zealandic Anglo,” initially posted about the concept of creating a group on 4chan in October 2022 – claiming he and a friend were looking to start “a fitness and intellectual group of like-minded young men, and possibly in the future, women.” He stated he was located in the Nelson-Tasman area and initially called it Zealandic-Anglo Fitness. It would appear that this individual is still operating in the same region, based on posts to NSF’s Telegram.
Early Telegram posts by the group are modeled on the American neo-Nazi group Rise Above Movement’s propaganda style, showing two males sparring with boxing gloves outdoors, with their identities hidden by a Totenkopf, a Nazi symbol. They also use slogans such as “Get Active, Join Today.” There are several posts showing fitness training get-togethers. In April 2026, NSF posted about the first National Socialist Faction Summer Nationals – “A true sign of the rising nationalist and racial spirit of New Zealand.” The announcement was accompanied with photos of two men boxing in t-shirts with the NSF logo.
NSF has conducted stickering campaigns with slogans such as “White Revolution Is The Only Solution” and “Mass immigration is causing a housing and rental crisis! White man fight back.” They have hosted at least one camping trip, accompanied with images of two men giving Hitler salutes. They celebrated the Winter Solstice, claiming that newly enlisted men joined NSF with full membership. They appear to have engaged in graffiti spray-painting “Nationalist” in a tunnel, and their logo under a bridge. NSF celebrated Hitler’s birthday on April 20, 2026, with a post calling him “the Greatest Man of Our Race.” There are several uses of the neo-Nazi slogan “Blood and Honour” throughout their Telegram communications. Interested parties are directed to a protonmail address or encouraged to DM Zealandic Anglo.
Remigration NZ (RNZ)
Location: Unknown
Ideology: White Nationalist, Anti-Immigrant
Remigration NZ is an anti-immigrant, white nationalist group based in New Zealand whose slogan is “take back our country.” They launched in 2026 and are a relatively small organization that appears to be modeled on the UK’s Remigration Now group, using the same logo and similar language. An X post from May 2026 refers to Remigration NZ as a “sister organisation,” and an article on Remigration NZ’s website has a foreword from Steve Laws, founder of Remigration Now. Their ideology is focused on the ethnic cleansing concept of “remigration,” that is now a core position of white nationalist and Identitarian movements.
Remigration is a policy “solution” to the white supremacist “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory that posits that white people are being intentionally replaced in their home countries by immigrants, refugees, and people of color. On its website, the group writes, “Patriots of New Zealand, YOU ARE BEING REPLACED.” The piece also reads, “It’s [New Zealand] being flooded daily by third world immigrants and it will lead to your people being demographically replaced. All of this is cheered on by treasonous politicians, foreign lobby groups and anti-Whites who are manipulated to hate their own.”
This conspiracy inspired the Christchurch shooter and other terrorists who have targeted Jews, Muslims, immigrants, Black people, women, and the LGBTQ+ community in their violent attacks. Remigration advocates forcibly removing these non-white populations from various countries, an idea that has been touted by the Trump administration. Remigration NZ reposted an X post from the U.S. Department of State that read, “Under President Trump, the State Department will facilitate remigration – not replacement migration.”
The group regularly posts anti-immigrant and hateful messages online. Examples include: “Not only must we secure our border by closing the immigration floodgate, we must also send them back to their home;” “Protect our heritage. Stop demographic replacement;” “Our government pisses on the grave of ANZACs by giving away the birthright of their descendants to hordes of foreigners who have no appreciation, sometimes even no respect, for our culture and nationhood as New Zealanders;” “Our immigration system is a system of mass demographic replacement through state sponsored fraud;” “The full picture of Indian criminality is starting to emerge in statistics and in national news. It follows a different but very consistent pattern from what one can see among other ethnic minorities. The data points to a distinct pattern of offending, revealing a pronounced propensity for sexual violence and fraud. These crimes are neither random nor anomalous in the Indian subcontinent. They are everyday occurrences in India;” and “Young New Zealanders are effectively priced out of their cities by Indian migrants, particularly in the rental market. Or they must choose to live like Indians in order to survive there.”
Remigration NZ has conducted several banner drops and small stickering campaigns in Wellington, Christchurch, and Nelson. Several posts on X show someone holding a “Remigration Now” sticker behind groups of Sikh people at a supermarket and at a mall. These stickers are available for purchase on the group’s website. Interested parties can complete a brief form on the Remigration NZ website to join the organization. Remigration NZ accepts Bitcoin donations, but records online indicate they have not yet received any contributions.
In January 2026, the group handed out fliers at a march in Auckland with their X handle, calling for “Not one more Third World immigrant. Remigration Now!” This post gained considerable attention on X, was viewed over 300,000 times and reposted hundreds more. In April 2026, two members were photographed holding a banner calling for “remigration now” outside an Indian community organization, the Mahatma Gandhi Centre, in Auckland. After the arrest of several members by New Zealand police following this incident, an online fundraiser was launched on GiveSendGo to help with legal costs, which has raised over NZ $5,000 (as of June 2026).
On ANZAC day on April 25, 2026, a public holiday that commemorates Australians and New Zealanders who have served and died in war and conflicts, Remigration NZ attended a march held by Brian Tamaki and True Patriots of NZ to protest mass immigration. Tamaki is a well-known Christian fundamentalist who promotes anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and has aligned himself with far-right figures including the UK’s most well-known anti-Muslim activist Tommy Robinson and other anti-immigrant groups.
In May 2026, the group announced that its members were targeted in a nationwide police operation involving armed officers, arrests, and the seizure of electronic devices. In a statement posted on social media, the organisation said homes belonging to activists and volunteers were raided as part of what it described as a “coordinated, nationwide crackdown” by the New Zealand Government. The group claimed some members were arrested and detained while being served trespass notices allegedly issued on behalf of the New Zealand Indian Central Association. The group says the police actions were politically motivated and aimed at suppressing opposition to immigration policies. “This campaign of state directed repression is a desperate attempt to undermine growing public opposition to mass migration,” the group said. The organization said it was preparing a fundraising campaign to replace seized equipment and cover potential legal costs. Police have not publicly commented on the claims made in the post.
The group appears to be small with just a few active members, but they are tightly connected to remigration groups and movements in other parts of the world and are an affiliate of Right Minds NZ.
Right Minds NZ (RMNZ)
Location: Auckland region
Ideology: White Nationalist, Anti-Immigrant, Religious Nationalist
Right Minds NZ was founded in 2016 by Dutch-born Dieuwe de Boer, who has run for various offices in New Zealand, in the wake of the election of Donald Trump and the UK vote for Brexit. The website describes the group “as a forum aimed at bringing together like-minded people who closely followed the meteoric rise of Donald Trump in the United States, which resulted in his election to the presidency. The idea quickly morphed into a blogging and news website aimed at New Zealand politics and providing a voice of opposition to the fake news media.”
The group runs a Facebook discussion group with just over 1,000 followers, an X account with just over 3,000 followers, as well as a Telegram channel. The group has held rallies in support of white nationalists, argued for Christian nationalism, and more recently taken up the idea of “remigration,” meaning the forced ethnic cleansing of traditionally white countries of non-white immigrants, a concept created by Austrian former neo-Nazi Martin Sellner. The group advertises Sellner’s writing on its social media accounts and de Boer describes himself on his X account as “remigration advocate” and “White Anglo-Saxon Protestant.” In March 2005, de Boer discussed the need for remigration with Sellner on Reality Check Radio NZ.
De Boer features former neo-Nazi Martin Sellner’s book, Regime Change from the Right, on his X feed as “poolside reading.” (Source: X).
Some of RMNZ’s early activities included being prominent in the campaign against the UN Migration Pact. Right Minds was strongly opposed to the Pact and, with the group NZ Sovereignty organized and promoted a national day of protest in February 2019. About 100 people showed up at Aotea Square in Auckland to hear speeches and buy “Make New Zealand Great Again” mugs and hats. Mainstream political parties ACT and the New Conservative party also lent their support.
RMNZ, under the banner of supporting “free speech,” rallied in support of the Canadian far-right activists Lauren Southern, an anti-Muslim activist who at the time was a great promoter of the white supremacist “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory that also inspired the Christchurch shooter, and Stefan Molyneux, a promoter of eugenics and scientific racism. In 2018, when Southern and Molyneux were banned from certain venues in New Zealand, RMNZ announced it would hold a series of rallies in support of them.
De Boer only speaks on alternative-media platforms. On the Australian-based Unshackled website in 2019, where he also contributes, he spoke of the dangers of mass migration around the world. “It’s not about being against immigration in general but about having people who will want to fit in, who will want to integrate and will want to participate in our society without turning it into the society that they left for a reason. “So it is a continuing worry or something to keep an eye on.”
In 2019, de Boer acknowledged that his views overlapped with those of the Christchurch shooter, parts of whose manifesto he read. “The overlapping views obviously are that we favour nationalism and have an opposition to the United Nations,” de Boer says, while emphasizing he is against terrorism and violence. “We want stronger controls on immigration. We haven’t talked much about replacement, but I would definitely highlight that Western nations in general have low birth rates.” Hence the need for the West to “import” workers from other cultures. “It’s partly responsible for the chaos we’re seeing across the western world,” de Boer says.
He complained that the Christchurch attack had been difficult for the group. He decried the “politicisation” of the tragedy, while continuing to publish blogs critical of Islam and then Prime Minister Arden’s inclusive response to the attack. He denounced a national broadcast of an Islamic call to prayer. “On Friday, for at least a moment, New Zealand will become an Islamic nation,” he warned.
In 2022, de Boer published “A Christian Nationalist Manifesto for New Zealand” that advocated that “The seeds of the family unit’s destruction were sown with the ascent of the liberal world order” and that “There’s only one thing that can stop this evil: Christian nationalism.” He argues, “’Christian nationalism’ is inevitable in the same way that Constantine’s eyes saw a sign in the sky as his eyes turned heavenward on the eve of battle. Secular revolution ends in death, but Christian revolution ends with resurrection. And we’ll have some fun along the way. Which way, western man?” (“Which way, western man” is the title of a white supremacist book by William Gayley Simpson).
The group’s website is filled by articles authored by the prolific de Boer. Topics include “The Ascendant Right and Wokeness,” “New Zealand is an Ethno-State,” “Politics is all about Identity,” and “Tearing Down the Idols of the Left.”
In July 2026, RMNZ published its first white paper, “New Zealand Remigration White Paper,” which laid out a decade-long plan to remove immigrants and their descendants from the country. Its goal is “Long-Term Demographic Restoration,” meaning restoring the population to European descendants only. Ultimately, the policy “will target unassimilable individuals and communities, measured by welfare dependency, disproportionate crime involvement, parallel societies, or divided loyalties.” The focus would be on “behavioural and cultural compatibility” and “a broader demographic approach recognising patterns of ethno-cultural compatibility.”
RMNZ’s affiliates page lists Remigration NZ, a white nationalist organization that advocates for the ethnic cleansing of New Zealand and holds protests against immigrant communities.
