Controversial charity gets fresh government funding
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey said the initiative was helping thousands of young people access mental health support faster.
He said New Zealand was "turning the corner with reducing wait times and increasing the workforce".
"There are not many organisations that can get our young people off waitlists into counselling often within just a few days," he said.
"The government is backing Gumboot Friday to deliver more. Funding for 2025/26 will deliver 40,000 individual counselling sessions, reaching as many as 15,000 young New Zealanders.
"Over the next 12 months, the organisation will be looking at how it can scale up and encourage even more young people to access free counselling."
The government last year committed $24 million over four years to the Gumboot Friday initiative, which was founded by mental health advocate Mike King.
That was despite pressure from Labour at the time, who called on the government to pause its funding of I Am Hope/Gumboot Friday following King's controversial comments on alcohol.
"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," King said at the time.
The Drug Foundation rejected that, saying alcohol was "really unhelpful during times of mental distress".
In November last year Doocey responded, saying while he disagreed King was entitled to have his own opinion on alcohol's association with mental health, and he would not be asking the advocate to rein in his comments.
On Thursday, Doocey said in the first 12 months of government funding, Gumboot Friday had been able to deliver more than 30,000 free counselling sessions.
"They have supported more than 10,000 young New Zealanders who might not otherwise have access to timely support.
The counselling service's procurement process had run into difficulties before.
Last October, the auditor-general criticised the government's "unusual and inconsistent" process in giving $24 million to King's initiative.
The government had announced the I Am Hope foundation would receive $6m a year for four years to provide counselling services to five- to 25-year-olds, as part of the coalition agreement.
But RNZ revealed health officials had struggled to find a way to make the contract compliant with public procurement rules, and ended up invoking a special 'opt-out' clause.
Auditor-General John Ryan wrote to the director-general of health then, saying the process was "unusual and inconsistent".
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