Wednesday’s health committee meeting was somewhat different however, as Taieri Labour MP Ingrid Leary found herself under the scrutiny of Mental Health minister Matt Doocey.
The previous day a letter from the Office of the Auditor-General had been released by Mike King, the founder of mental health charity I Am Hope. The letter was the AG’s response to concerns raised by Leary in an October letter regarding the Ministry of Health’s contract with I Am Hope for providing youth mental health services through the Gumboot Friday initiative.
It further said that the office intended to monitor the initiative, and it was as good as its word, reviewing the contract as part of its annual audit of the Ministry of Health.
The audit found that the contract was being "managed appropriately against its terms and in accordance with good practice", and that it did not consider that further investigation by it of how public money had been spent was necessary. Many of the issues Leary had raised, such as I Am Hope’s remuneration or procurement processes, were outside its mandate.
While the office did offer a sliver of hope to Leary — that it might reconsider its decision if further information became available — that was pretty much game, set match.
Mike King thought so and said as much and then some in a blistering social media post all media picked up on on Tuesday.
King called Leary "obsessed" and accused her of not understanding the contract between the ministry and I Am Hope; Leary responded by saying that her job was to make sure that the government was held to account for its funding choices and that asking questions was entirely appropriate.
In a neat coincidence, the very next day Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey was due before the health committee of which Leary, also Labour’s spokeswoman for mental health, is a member.
They have been sparring all year on a range of fronts and the first part of the hearing saw them skirmishing again on what spending is in — and is not— within the government’s ring-fenced funding for mental health, whether creating the role of associate psychologist was clinically appropriate or not, and whether various services should or should not have received tax payer support.
One topic which Leary diligently steered clear of was I Am Hope. She may have felt all that could be said on the matter had been said, but National Mount Roskill MP Carlos Cheung clearly felt otherwise.
"There has been a lot of noise about I Am Hope in the past few days," he said with masterly understatement, before asking Doocey what the money granted to the organisation was for.
"$24 million over four years to deliver vital support to 15,000 young people," he replied.
"It is a platform that has scaled up to about 850 counsellors, that’s about a third increase since they have had that funding . . . all that money goes directly into fee for service, it goes directly into clinical activity, on average about $150 a session. None of that money goes into administration or overheads.
"I think writing a letter to the Auditor-General, as some Opposition MP has, asking them to investigate, with concerns of the financial management of I Am Hope, is pretty disappointing."
No one, of course, was labouring under any misapprehension as to who the unnamed MP might be. . . and Cheung was not finished, asking whether as minister Doocey had tried to raise I Am Hope’s performance.
"Yeah, that’s a good question," the minister said approvingly, noting that I Am Hope was subject of a very clear performance management contract.
"Not only that, as the Auditor-General did report, we are getting regular updates of their activity and they are well on track to deliver the expectations of their contract," he finished with a large grin on his face.
Not to be outdone New Zealand First list MP Jenny Marcroft gave Doocey a second chance to put the gumboot in — no surprise here, given that funding I Am Hope was a coalition agreement commitment sponsored by NZ First.
Noting that Mike King has recently stepped down from any managing role at I Am Hope, did Doocey have a message for him she wondered?
Why yes he did, noting that King was a respected advocate, as were many other mental health professionals.
"I would say that most people do get connected to timely support but not only that, boy do they get connected, to people on the frontline who are passionate, who know their stuff, and who make a real difference for Kiwis in a very vulnerable time in their lives."
Leary then chipped in with a supplementary which backed the praise of the workforce but went off topic to ask about funding for the Mana Ake school mental health programme.
Cheung tried via point of order to bring the committee back to the pleasant business of grilling Leary about I Am Hope, but it turned out that Doocey was more than keen to answer this particular question.
"I don’t think she’s gonna like to hear this," he replied, explaining that when he became minister the programme in question had not been fully funded and he had had to scrape around to find the required cash: "That member needs to respond to that."
Leary tried to do exactly that, only for committee chairman Sam Uffindell to end a session which had been more about the person not asking the questions rather than the person actually answering them.
And then it became even more about Leary when it was revealed she had used AI to generate suggested questions (no issue there) but then accidentally sent them to NZ First Minister Casey Costello — quite a big issue there.
Biggest issue of all though was her fumbling, stumbling performance when asked about it by One News, which elevated it from a minor blue on being on that night’s bulletin. Not a great day’s work.
