Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Controversial charity Gumboot Friday will continue to receive government funding through to 2026.
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey said the initiative was helping thousands of young people access mental health support faster.
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".
When asked at a media briefing on Thursday about the auditor-general's criticisms of the procurement process, Doocey said he was focused on the results of the initiative.
"People can criticise this programme all they want, but clearly today the activity showed it's delivered, so all I'm interested in is how many more young people we can support, and that's what this programme is doing".
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
When asked by RNZ's Midday Report about the criticisms and whether he's confident the money is well spent, Doocey said he thought the auditor general was "complimentary" about the performance management measures in the contract with the charity.
Doocey said the government paid $150 for each clinical session delivered by the initiative, according to an "output based contract" with the charity.
He said he's confident that next year, they'll be able to scale up to reaching 15,000 young people.
"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."
Meanwhile, Labour's mental health spokesperson Ingrid Leary said the numbers did not reflect the full story of whether the service was working to improve the mental health of young people.
She said two free sessions was not a lot, particularly for young people with complex needs.
Leary said she had been told by the Ministry for Health that its evaluation framework for Gumboot Friday would be ready end of this year, and that she will be waiting to see the results from that assessment.
She said she expected the evaluation system to have already been in place in the original design of the programme, considering that $24 million of public money was at stake.
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.
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