Tamakis launch Indian-origin candidate for Epsom who surrendered passport and has ‘assimilated’
Brian Tamaki's wife Hannah is the leader of the minnow Vision NZ party.
“I know a whole lot of people are going to be like shocked,” says Hannah Tamaki.
Vision New Zealand has unveiled an Indian-origin candidate for Epsom, with party leader Hannah Tamaki repeatedly highlighting his decision to surrender his Indian passport and his “assimilation” into New Zealand.
Sawan Jerry, an IT professional who moved to New Zealand in 2011, was introduced by Tamaki in a video on Monday announcing he would contest the Auckland electorate for Vision NZ.
Destiny Church leaders Hannah and Brian Tamaki founded Vision in 2019, and the party has yet to win a seat in Parliament.
At the 2023 election, it contested as part of the Freedoms NZ umbrella that received just 0.33 per cent of party vote. Under Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) representation, a party needs at least five per cent of the party vote to enter Parliament.
Jerry said he wanted to join the party partly to act as a bridge between Vision NZ and the Indian community.
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“I come from India, basically,” he said. “And I want to work for, I want to be part of Vision NZ because I want to act like a bridge for my Indian community as well as Vision New Zealand.”
But Hannah placed particular emphasis on Jerry having adopted a New Zealand identity. After noting he was originally from India, she raised a previous conversation in which he had told her he had surrendered his Indian passport.
“Jerry said he's from India and you have assimilated,” she said. “But something you told me when we were having a meeting is that you surrendered your Indian passport.”
The emphasis reflects Vision NZ’s stated immigration and citizenship policy. The party wants to extend the residence requirement for citizenship to 10 years and end dual citizenship for new applicants, arguing people becoming citizens should be “fully committed to assimilating into Kiwi culture”.
It also comes after months of increasingly confrontational rhetoric from Brian Tamaki over immigration, with Indian migration becoming a particular focus.
His broader argument has been that mass migration without assimilation risks changing New Zealand’s culture and politics, a theme that has featured repeatedly in his public comments about the growth of Indian communities and political influence.
That rhetoric has also extended directly to Indian-origin candidates. Earlier this year, Tamaki singled out ACT’s Papakura candidate Malkiat Singh while arguing that migration was reshaping New Zealand politics.
It prompted Singh to respond with an offer of a “bridge of love” and an invitation to discuss migration, culture and assimilation face-to-face.
Jerry, meanwhile, told Hannah Tamaki he now needed a visa when travelling to India because he was a New Zealand citizen.
“I'm a Kiwi now. I consider myself to be a New Zealander,” he said.
Tamaki replied: “OK, so you totally assimilated because that's what we're talking about.”
She went on to say people came to New Zealand seeking “a better way, a better life”, before asking Jerry how his family and friends had reacted to his decision to surrender his Indian passport.
Jerry said the decision had not been difficult for his family to accept, referring to his family's Christian background spanning several generations.
“I pledge allegiance to New Zealand flag and I stick to it and they're quite proud about it,” he said.
Tamaki then announced Jerry would stand for Vision NZ in Epsom, saying he had relationships within his community and acknowledging the choice could surprise some people.
“I know a whole lot of people are going to be like shocked,” she said “But we work together. His family is amazing family.”
Tamaki added that “a lot of Indian families” shared the same outlook as Jerry and his family, describing them as “supporting and assimilated into New Zealand”.
Vision NZ's formal candidate announcement takes a different tack, focusing heavily on Jerry's business and technology career.
The party says he has spent more than 17 years working in global logistics and technology as a senior SAP principal consultant and has led multimillion-dollar digital transformation projects for companies including Fonterra, IBM, British American Tobacco and GlaxoSmithKline.
Jerry said in the announcement video that he originally came to New Zealand as a supply chain enterprise expert working for Fonterra in 2011 and had since raised his children here.
He also described himself as a former tennis player and coach in India and said one of his daughters later received a scholarship to study and play tennis in the United States.
