What’s up with Matt Doocey, Mike King & the $24mn of taxpayers money?

Unfortunately NZ has one of the highest youth suicide rates in the world – double that of other OECD countries. Mental illness at all ages is a serious issue and directly correlates to crime, domestic violence, poverty, social costs, health costs.

Despite this, the National-led right wing government this year broke their promise to fund mental health registrars – effectively funding none. And very little has been put into mental health – including their effective disbanding of the Suicide Prevention Office which remains in name only.

After the budget, NZ chair of the Royal Australia New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, Dr Hiran Thabrew, said Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey had not backed up “his words [with] action.. Every day, people experiencing serious mental health or addiction issues are falling through the cracks. From an economic perspective, it’s short-sighted.”

Doocey also didn’t bother reading the Abuse in Care report despite it being personally sent to him months before the formal hearings. Doocey was supposed to be part of the team overseeing recommendations, but clearly, his rhetoric never matches his actions. How much could he care? Even Luxon said he read it cover to cover.

In September, the Mental Health Minister spoke to mental health practitioners, earning him murmurs of disbelief, anger and shakes of heads as he claimed mental health was well funded under this government.

And that brings me to Mike King’s I Am Hope, which National gave $24m of taxpayers money to in a process called highly “irregular,” not transparent and inappropriate by the AG.

Yesterday on my Substack, I predicted Doocey and Luxon would be out defending Mike King today and voila, it happened like clockwork.

“He can say what he wants to say” claimed Doocey after Mike King’s promotion of alcohol and drugs as a solution to youth mental anguish.

And Luxon has thrown his hat in too – claiming Labour are playing politics with mental health, after their Mental Health spokesperson suggested a pause on funding, given King’s public comments.

To be clear this is what King said on Newtalk ZB this week:

“Alcohol is not a problem for people with mental health issues. It’s actually the solution to our problem, until you come up with a better solution.”

“I would suggest to you that alcohol has prevented more young people from taking their own lives than it actually takes their own lives.”

And today he doubled down – in this NZ Herald excerpt:

Alcohol use has been found to be associated with a 94% increase in the risk of suicide, a meta-analysis report from 2022 said. Alcohol use and death by suicide: A meta-analysis of 33 studies included 10 million participants…

King told the Herald he stood by his statements and dismissed research about alcohol’s harms.

He also claimed there would be evidence proving him right, however, he did not provide any research when asked.

King hung up after being pressed on the issue, claiming the increased risk of suicide from alcohol consumption was a matter of opinion and that he would have to “agree to disagree”.

There is unfortunately more.

The National government had “directed” the Ministry to give King the $24m contract in the first place – and as per above, the Attorney General noted it was both irregular and bad practice to do so.

Second – documents obtained under the Official Information Act showed Health Ministry officials struggled to find a way to make the contract compliant with public procurement rules.

So they had to use a special ‘opt-out’ clause to twist the rules.

Finally, Treasury recommended the government not to fund Gumboot Friday at all – stating:

“Whilst innovative approaches may provide unique ways of responding to low mental-wellbeing, we consider investment to address mental health issues is better directed to preventative initiatives.”

Yesterday, Labour’s Mental Health spokesperson Ingrid Leary called for a review of Gumboot Friday and to pause funding in light of King’s comments.

PS There are other claimed irregularities. For example, this Redditor claims only 50% of their funds goes to counsellors. I haven’t verified that claim but the post may be of interest. Another point is the provider couldn’t pass standard procurement processes. They apparently only provide 1-2 sessions for free. $24mn is a lot of money – why was this favour made for them? And given the correlation between alcohol abuse and suicide and family violence, how can Mike King hold a leadership position in a charity that purportedly mentors and counsels youths?