Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: The Mike King debate has turned political

I'm not altogether surprised that Mike King’s comments on this show yesterday have sparked a debate.

The reason I'm not surprised is because some of what he said is factually wrong.

King claimed alcohol wasn't a problem for people with mental health issues - but rather, a solution.

Remember, we are talking about suicide. For people with suicidal ideation, alcohol is a problem because it lowers inhibitions, meaning people are more likely to act on their feelings. And it’s a depressant, it lowers your mood, it makes you more unhappy.

But some of what he said - to be fair to him - is also his own lived experience in trying to cope with his mental health issues.

He said he's a drug addict and alcoholic and his whole life, he used drugs and alcohol to stop that little voice inside his head.

You can’t argue with that as much, because that is his experience. And there is actually evidence that alcohol does provide a mental escape in the moment.

What I'm a little surprised by is the strength of the reaction to Mike King today. I was expecting the anti-alcohol people to get wound up - but I wasn't expecting the Labour Party to go quite as far as they have.

Labour have today called for Government funding of Gumboot Friday to be reconsidered. Let's be clear about what’s going on here, this is political.

There was a time when everyone loved Mike King and thought he was a good guy doing good work for mental health.

But then he became a political figure, because he took on Jacinda Ardern and had a public scrap with her, because her Government pulled funding from his charity and handed back his Order of Merit medal

The Nats then adopted him and funded his charity in a way that the Auditor-General isn't totally happy with, and now people are split on whether they love Mike King or not - probably, in some cases, depending on how they vote.

Now, I'm not saying Mike King is above criticism or scrutiny or that this isn’t a debate worth having.

I'm just saying, bear in mind that when we do have it, that this isn’t just about mental health and alcohol - it’s also about politics.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hither duplicy Ellen.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
Look, I'm not altogether surprised that Mike King's comments on
the show yesterday have sparked a debate. And the reason
I'm not surprised is because what he said, well some
of what he said at least, is factually wrong.

Speaker 1 (00:12):
Alcohol is not a problem for people with mental health issues.
It's actually the solution to our problem.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Now. Remember we are specifically talking about suicide here, and
for people with suicide suicidal ideation, alcohol is actually a
problem because what it does is at low as inhibitions.
When you're drunk, your inhibitions are a little bit lower, right,
so people are more likely to act on their feelings.
It is also a depressant. Drink enough low as your mood.
If you're already unhappy, it's going to make you more unhappy.

(00:40):
But then some of what he said, to be fair
to him is also his own lived experience and trying
to cope with his mental health issues.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
I'm a drug addict and alcoholic in my whole life.
I use drugs and alcohol to stop that little voice
inside my head that told me that I wasn't good enough,
that I was useless.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
Now, you can't argue with that as much can you,
because that's his experience, from his perspective of living through that,
and there is actually evidence that alcohol does provide a
mental escape, certainly in the moment. What I am a
little bit surprised by is the strength of the reaction
to Mike King today. I mean, I was absolutely expecting
the anti alcohol people to get wound up. They often do,

(01:19):
but I was not really expecting that the Labour Party
would go quite as far as they have. They have
today called for government funding of gun Boot Friday to
be reconsidered. Now just consider what that means. Right, they
are asking the government to stop helping people deal with
their mental health health issues because of what Mike King said.
Is that reasonable? I mean, let's be clear what's going

(01:39):
on here. This is political. There was a time when
everybody loved Mike King. Everybody thought he was a good
guy doing good work for mental health. But then he
became a political figure, didn't he Because he took on
Jacinda Ardurn when she was Prime Minister. He had a
public scrap with her because her government pulled funding for
his charity, handed back his Order of meritst metal. The
NATS then adopted him. They funded his charity once they

(02:01):
got into government in a way that the orders in
general is not totally happy with. And now people are
split on whether they love Mike King or not, and
probably in some cases that split will indicate pretty much
how they vote.

Speaker 1 (02:12):
Now.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
I'm not saying Mike King is above criticism. I'm not
saying Mike King's above scrutiny, or that this isn't a
debate worth having about what he said. I'm just saying,
bear in mind that when we do have this debate
about what he's just said, this isn't just about mental health,
This isn't just about alcohol. This is also very much
now about politics. For more from Hither Duplicy Allen Drive,

(02:35):
listen live to News Talk said B from four pm weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio