Race Relations Commissioner Melissa Derby has called on politicians to avoid hateful speech in the lead-up to the 2026 general election, warning that the campaign could become a platform for messaging that puts religious and ethnic communities at risk.

Derby made the remarks on 6 July 2026 at the launch of the fourth Statement on Religious Diversity, a document setting out religious freedoms and the Crown's responsibilities to protect them. The launch was partly triggered by recent comments from Destiny Church leader Brian Tamaki, who called for Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims to be "purged." Derby said she was "absolutely appalled" by Tamaki's remarks and confirmed police were examining them, according to RNZ.

Tamaki has maintained his comments fell within the thresholds outlined in the Human Rights Act. That argument points to a long-running gap in New Zealand's hate speech framework — one the statement launch is partly designed to highlight.

The legal gap

The Royal Commission of Inquiry into the 2019 Christchurch mosque terrorist attack, which reported in late 2020, found that religion is not listed as a protected characteristic under the Human Rights Act. Race, colour, and ethnic origin are covered; religion is not. The previous Labour government attempted to close that gap by adding a new offence to the Crimes Act, but the proposal proved politically contentious and stalled before becoming law.

The National Party has confirmed it does not support legislating against hate speech. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon nonetheless wrote a foreword to the fourth Statement on Religious Diversity, in which he stated it reaffirms the right of all religious and faith communities to practise their beliefs free from discrimination and harassment — a statement of principle that falls short of any commitment to law change.

Derby and the Human Rights Commission support legislative changes that would reflect the Royal Commission's findings, while holding that the threshold for any hate speech offences must remain high to protect freedom of expression. That is not a new position for the Commission — it has consistently argued the balance matters as much as the coverage — but the push arrives with an election cycle in the background and Tamaki's comments as a recent, concrete example.

Tamaki and the electoral context

Brian Tamaki and his wife Hannah Tamaki are the driving forces behind Vision NZ, which contested the last election under the Freedoms NZ umbrella and received approximately 9,500 votes — 0.33 per cent of the party vote. By standard measures that is a negligible electoral presence. The concern Derby is articulating is less about Vision NZ's prospects and more about the broader permissiveness that election campaigns can create: the attention candidates attract, the amplification social media provides, and the way fringe rhetoric can set the temperature of public discourse even without parliamentary representation.

The 2026 election is several months away. Derby's call is early, deliberate and directed at the political class broadly — not at any single party. Whether parties respond substantively, or treat it as Commission advice to be managed, will become clearer as campaign season intensifies.

The statement itself carries one clear weight: a sitting Prime Minister has put his name to a document affirming freedom of religion from discrimination. That creates at least a rhetorical standard against which campaign behaviour can be measured, even if no enforcement mechanism sits behind it.

The tension between that rhetorical commitment and National's settled position against hate speech legislation is not new. It will be worth watching whether Derby — or any other commissioner — moves to make it a live issue during the campaign.