Election 2026: NZ First dips into Destiny Church ranks for Papakura candidate
George Ngatai (right) is a prominent businessman and social worker with strong ties to South Auckland.
George Ngatai's political career has taken him through several parties, and more than one ideological neighbourhood.
New Zealand First has tapped into Destiny Church base to select businessman and community health provider George Ngatai as its candidate for the South Auckland electorate of Papakura.
Ngatai has been described as a prominent member of Destiny Church and has previously contested elections for Hannah Tamaki’s Vision New Zealand in neighbouring Takanini.
His move to New Zealand First, announced on Sunday, adds another party to a political career that has crossed National, the Māori Party and the Destiny Church-linked Vision New Zealand.
Ngatai's most recent foray into politics saw him garner only 361 electorate votes in Takanini in 2020, finishing last among seven candidates. Labour’s Neru Leavasa won the newly-created electorate.
Ngatai’s work outside politics spans business, broadcasting and community healthcare. Alongside his wife and business partner, Raewyn Bhana, he bought Auckland radio station Base FM in 2022.
In an email sent to station staff after the purchase, the couple described their businesses as a $25 million operation encompassing eight medical practices, two supermarkets, childcare centres and a Mr Whippy franchise.
The purchase caused concern among some of the station’s DJs because of the couple’s association with Destiny Church. Five DJs resigned after the sale.
Ngatai addressed the issue in an email to staff. “I can’t detach my associations from myself, but I can promise that everything we do will be professional,” he said.
Ngatai and Bhana also established the Whānau Ora Community Clinic, which operated medical practices and provided Covid-19 testing and vaccinations.
Ngatai grew up in Bay of Plenty's Whakatāne as one of eight siblings, and has said the cost of visiting a doctor was sometimes a barrier for his family. That experience helped shape his clinic’s low-cost model, aimed at making primary healthcare more affordable for families facing similar pressures.
During the pandemic, the clinic used Destiny Church’s Wiri car park as a Covid-19 testing centre. It also administered Covid-19 vaccines through its medical practices while Destiny Church leader Brian Tamaki opposed vaccine mandates.
Ngatai told RNZ in 2021 that increasing Māori vaccination rates would be “a marathon, not a sprint”.
His association with Destiny Church has previously extended into politics. Vision New Zealand, on whose ticket Ngatai contested from Tanakini in 2020, is led by Brian Tamaki's wife.
But his political career began more than two decades earlier with the centre-right National Party, when he stood in the Waiariki Māori electorate in 1999 and later contested Tāmaki Makaurau in 2002.
Ngatai then moved into the Māori Party, serving as co-chair of its Tāmaki Makaurau electorate organisation. He contested the Māori Party presidency in 2013, losing to Naida Galosh after the contest went to a run-off, and later appeared on the party’s list at the 2017 election.
Three years later, he stood for Vision New Zealand before joining New Zealand First for the 2026 campaign.
Ngatai will now contest Papakura, where National Party has fielded first-timer Emma Chatterton after Judith Collins's exit
Collins retained the electorate in 2023 with 24,109 votes, beating Labour’s Anahila Kanongata’a by 13,519 votes. New Zealand First received 2,238 party votes in the electorate.
