Mike King hands honour back in disgust

TVNZ reports:

Mental Health advocate and educator Mike King is returning his New Zealand Order of Merit medal ahead of Gumboot Friday after sending an open letter to Jacinda Ardern.

It comes as the former New Zealander of the Year is stationed down at Auckland Domain ahead of his annual fundraising event tomorrow to raise money for free counselling for New Zealand youth.

King sent the letter to Ardern this afternoon, telling her he felt “honoured” to receive the medal at the time but now feels uncomfortable with New Zealand’s unchanged mental health landscape.

“It no longer sits comfortably with me. Every day I look at myself in the mirror and ask, ‘How can you wear this title when things haven’t changed and so many are still suffering?’

“The truth is I can’t. I know none of this is your fault Prime Minister and I know you truly care about our children but the system is broken and it seems to our most vulnerable Kiwis and their families that no one is trying to fix it,” King says in the letter. 

“On that basis I stand with those families and with great sadness I will be returning my NZOM Medal to Dame Patsy Reddy before she leaves office.

“I know this is the last thing you needed to hear but I can no longer stand idly by hoping things will change and knowing they won’t.

“To paraphrase Martin Luther King, ‘For incompetence to prevail all it needs is for good people to do nothing.'”

It’s almost as if saying “be kind” isn’t enough!