18 Comments

It's frustrating to live with mental illness and navigate long-term diagnoses over decades, only to feel like genuine help is still out of reach. I'm sure I'm not alone in this; many of us went through a broken system as children, teens, and young adults. And now, as we grow older, the situation feels even worse. There’s real help we need but may never receive. This country seems more focused on slogans than solutions. Young people are encouraged to publicly share their supposed mental health struggles, while thousands are still on waiting lists just to be tested for ADHD. Meanwhile, government funding is directed to organizations like Mr King's gumboot clinic yet hardly anyone understands what they actually do. What the hell is $24m spent on.

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It's pretty clear to me that as a psychiatric matter mental illness support organisations should only be allowed to practice, let alone be Government funded, if they are substantially directed by qualified psychiatrists and psychologists. Instead what's happening sounds like an irresponsible approach by all parties to assuring availability of essential health related services. Really I just don't get such amateurish Kiwi nonsense.

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Mr Luxon should know better than this. If it’s NZF’s policy then Luxon should let NZF defend it. I thought we’d stopped spending on whims.

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Why on earth would anyone work their butt off to help others if the end result is to be universally castigated by the left because a right wing government gave money to your cause

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Because other health workers are also working their butts off with little recognition or support. Share the $ around more fairly.

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Organisations should be funded based on merit, not political appointment. Of course King will face extra scrutiny now, especially when he says things that go against the grain of accepted best practice.

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It is frustrating to hear criticism of funding allocated to be drawn down for counselling for teens by the current government, when Labour provided uncontested funding to CASA for suicide bereavement counselling during their term.

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Mike King is getting the worst kind of tall poppy treatment, but I would back him to do a better job than any of you critics, and he deserves that funding because he understands young males better than any of you, and would run rings around you all when it comes to getting results. Go Mike King and the Coalition. Save us from all these small minded people.

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No-one is claiming to resolve mental health problems. They're querying whether giving $24 million to Mike King's outfit while cutting funding to other services is the best use of public money. The course of events suggests that MK got the money because of Coalition deal-making and the wish to court public popularity by rewarding a high-profile figure. If there's objective evidence that King's outfit gets demonstrable results that are better than those of any alternative organisation, someone should produce it.

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The problem for you tall poppy critics is that Mike King has more credibility than any of you. Everything I have seen of Mike shows he has the mana and commitment to continue to do a good job, unlike all his small minded critics, and no-one has criticized his work, so it is up to you to find a good reason he shouldnt get that funding. I would rather get the best person for the job, and ignore all the Woke DEI adherents. You need to put up or shut up.

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As I recall, Labour tipped just over one billion into mental health and had nothing to show for it. Oh yes, one extra bed in a hospital facility somewhere. Mike King will be answerable for his targeted funding.

Time to stop the tall poppy criticism and let him get on with the job.

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Nah, don't think MK will be answerable at all. The govt will work on the basis that thousands of people get warm fuzzies when they hear the name 'Mike King'. Meanwhile services like the one discussed in the article will continue to be starved of funds and suffer OTT vetting. No reason to think this govt is any better than in the last in this field.

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Your words do not come from a position of being well informed or wise.

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I am actually very well informed and wise. I even test people for being well informed and wise, and so far, you havent shown much of either. You need to up your game if you want to be taken seriously.

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Well said

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A bit like Te Pati agenda. A wonderful perfect maori culture/society embeded in all of us without any evidence of how it all works

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Opinion: Mike King is just a visible example. Easy pickings. And while the $24m given to him - his group raises serious concerns he’s not the only one who has been benefiting from taxpayer money forever —his Gumboot group is far from the only org. It wouldn't be as bad if these groups delivered real results. If these groups were competent, able to make real, meaningful progress, at least it would be something. But too many groups achieve nothing for the people they claim to help, while doing quite well for themselves. This is a serious and commonplace corruption in NZ that requires genuine engagement and investigation, and not just w more experts or talking heads. If the serious left (is that even a thing? 😉) were truly committed the focus would be engaging with everyday Kiwis, not just pandering to the liberal professional class with it's weird obsession with race and gender. No. We need real structural analysis - by the people, for the people, with the people. Nothing about us without us etcetera.

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"Back in the 2000s film-maker Peter Jackson ran controversial but highly effective lobbying campaigns to obtain tax rebates for his industry and weaken legal protections for film-industry workers" - those times seem long, long ago. When Wellington really was the coolest little capital (despite Jackson's undue influence). I know 'back in the good old days' talk is tiresome but they were nice years for Wellington.

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