The strange case of the I am Hope funding

Written By: - Date published: 9:13 am, November 3rd, 2024 - 11 comments
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I had pretty well finished this post when I read the excellent summary of the same issue by Mountain Tui.

As I cover some different aspects of the controversy I thought I would publish anyway but I would recommend reading Mountain Tui’s excellent post.

One of the more unusual National NZ First Coalition agreement provisions was the requirement to fund the Gumboot Friday/I Am Hope Charity to $6 million per annum.

It was unusual to have expenditure this targeted. The usual process is to set money aside for a purpose and let existing processes decide how the money should be spent and who on. This way there can be no claim of favouritism which this particular requirement drips heavily of.

Troy Elliott who is the son of former National MP John Elliott and who sought National’s Botany candidacy in 2019 is a trustee and former Chief Executive. Until very recently other trustees included former National MP Todd Muller and Naomi Ballantyne, who donated nearly $7,000 to National in 2023 and $21,600 in 2017.

Another former Trustee Denise L’Estrange-Corbet stood for the National aligned Communities and Residents ticket in the Auckland Local Body elections.

Muller, Ballantyne and L’Estrange-Corbet were removed as trustees in August of this year. Perhaps the organisation wanted to appear to be less aligned to the National Party although Elliott remains.

And there has been a significant turnover of trustees with six resigning in the past year.

Mike King has given a spirited defence of the organisation and denied that the organisation is aligned with the National Party. But the links are there and it is the perception as much as the reality that is important. This is why the Government has procurement rules, to ensure that there is public confidence that decisions are made in the public good.

The Auditor General had a look at the arrangement and his conclusion was scathing. He concluded there was an unusual and inconsistent process used to justify the $24 million contract.

From Anusha Bradley at Radio New Zealand:

In a six-page letter to Director-General of Health Dr Diana Sarfati published this afternoon, Ryan raised multiple concerns about several aspects of the procurement process, including that there was no “clear justification” for invoking the opt-out clause.

“Several aspects of the process are unusual and inconsistent with good practice,” he writes.

Ministry of Health officials were “put in a difficult position” by the coalition agreement to fund ‘I Am Hope’, but they should have provided better advice on the rules to the minister, he said.

“The analysis appeared designed to retrospectively justify an outcome that had already been decided.”

Matters of concern include:

  • The selection of the supplier and the amount of funding was decided without an open and transparent process
  • There was no opportunity for a fair, open or competitive procurement process
  • The funding for the new initiative was specific to a supplier, rather than to a broad policy initiative or to achieve a policy outcome
  • The limited analysis on whether it was appropriate to directly contract the supplier or whether the supplier was best placed to deliver the policy objective was done only after the decision to provide funding to the supplier had been made
  • The decision to opt-out of the rules took place after the decision to engage the supplier and without clear justification of why an opt-out was appropriate.

Things became really weird recently when Mike King stated on Newstalk ZB that alcohol is not a problem for people with mental health issues.

He described it as being “the solution to our problem, until you come up with a better solution”. Experts in the field disagree. It appears King has relied on his personal experience to make this claim.

The statement caused Labour to ask that funding for I am Hope is paused.

From Radio New Zealand:

Labour’s mental health spokesperson Ingrid Leary said that [funding] should be reviewed.

“The comments are deeply problematic and fly in the face of well-established body of literature that links alcohol use both directly and indirectly with mental ill health, including with suicide risk,” she said.

“To continue to fund Gumboot Friday sends a message to young people that alcohol use is a recognised treatment for mental health issues.”

Christopher Luxon has responded by accusing Labour of playing politics with the issue which is quite ironic because he has never seen an issue he did not play politics with. You just have to look at its press releases from last year to get a sense of this. Everything was bad and everything was Labour’s fault.

The I am Hope model, providing young people access to counsellors, has merit. But there is a strong sense that the Government has been playing favourites and King’s claims about the benefits of alcohol for depression have landed them with one hell of a hangover.

11 comments on “The strange case of the I am Hope funding ”

  1. Anne 1
    3 November 2024 at 10:46 am

    …there is a strong sense that the Government has been playing favourites and King’s claims about the benefits of alcohol for depression have landed them with one hell of a hangover.

    Serves them right. They deserve it.

    They have been behaving like spoilt brats [which most of them clearly were] and smashing everything Labour did simply out of revenge. They have been getting rid of sector leaders etc., who had been appointed by Labour because of their proven record, for the same petty reason.

    They are filling the posts with their rich donors and supporters regardless of whether they are suitable candidates – or not. Mike King comes across to me as one of the latter. He won't be the only one. There will be more embarrassments coming up for this government. No sympathy from this voter.

    Reply
    • Steve Banbury 1.1
      3 November 2024 at 11:05 am

      Luxon: Let's keep politics out of mental health.

      Bishop: Let's keep politics out of infrastructure.

      Reti: Let's keep politics out of health.

      Willis: Let's keep politics out of tax subsidies for landlords.

      Brown: Let's keep politics out of climate change.

      Seymour: Let's keep politics out of ti tiriti.

      Jones: Let's keep politics out of my pig trough.

      Peters: Listen sunshine, keep out of politics.

      Me: Let's get this coalition of grifters out of politics asap

      Reply
  2. Incognito 2
    3 November 2024 at 11:13 am

    @ mickysavage,

    Excellent investigative piece on the I Am Hope Foundation.

    I had also looked into this a little but I’m no financial sleuth and lack other skills to do it justice, but I noticed that from 1 April 2021 onwards the annual income rose sharply and outstripped annual expenditure by millions of dollars – the annual return for the year ended 31 March 2024 (was due on 18 October 2024) hasn’t been filed yet. At present, they’re very well cashed-up to the tune of almost $5 million in net assets.

    Reply
    • Bearded Git 2.1
      3 November 2024 at 12:22 pm

      +100 Incog; great post micky.

      It would be interesting to find out from the accounts who specifically is benefitting; who specifically is getting paid by the Foundation.

      Reply
    • Psych Nurse 2.2
      3 November 2024 at 3:46 pm

      No one asks why a registered charity who elicits funds from the public is able to use those funds to donate to political parties.

      Reply
    • mickysavage 2.3
      3 November 2024 at 6:55 pm

      Thanks will have a look.

      Reply
  3. Ffloyd 3
    3 November 2024 at 11:18 am

    COC will be going for the tri fecta next. Got the tobacco, got the booze, now to get it out there that gambling all your money away on a day at the races is a sure antidote to a lifetime of peace and serenity. A prescription from the almighty bard ‘as it is writ’…What could possibly go wrong Win P?

    Reply
  4. observer 4
    3 November 2024 at 5:43 pm

    Sometimes satire hits the target better than the news … so here's Steve Braunias.

    The Secret Diary of .. Mike King – Newsroom

    “You knew what was behind it mate.”

    Luxon, hoist, petard.

    Reply

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