Police and Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell. Photo / Marty Melville
Police and Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell. Photo / Marty Melville
The Government will stop funding the controversial Mongrel Mob-led drug rehabilitation programme Kahukura.
Police Minister Mark Mitchell confirmed funding would not continue under the coalition Government, describing initial decisions by Labour to support the programme as “perverse”.
“We are not going to fund the Mongrel Mob to deliver programmes around meth when they are some of the biggest dealers in methamphetamine. It’s just perverse.”
He rejected that the programme was or could be effective, or that those who ran it were able to access communities and groups that other services could not.
”You’d have to show me the results of it and I don’t think anyone had seen those. We are not having gang members that are out there selling methamphetamine getting taxpayer money to deliver programmes.”
He wasn’t aware of any other similar programmes having their funding cut, but said: “If there are programmes where gangs have been funded to run programmes like that, then the expectation is that that funding will stop.”
Police Minister Mark Mitchell in Parliament. Photo / Mark Mitchell.
Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora’s co-director in addictions and national commissioning, Ian McKenzie, said the programme was provided with time-limited funding.
“The contract for this programme has finished and this has been communicated to the provider. This programme is under evaluation and the final report is due in January 2025.”
Kahukura is an eight-week live-in marae-based programme for people suffering from drug addiction, mainly methamphetamine. The programme is led by the Mongrel Mob and uses a mix of Māori healing and clinical therapeutic practices, according to its website.
The programme was launched in 2020 and received funding under the previous Labour Government between 2021 and 2024 from the Proceeds of Crime Fund, a funding pool derived from cash, or the sale of assets, seized by police because they were obtained directly or indirectly from the proceeds of crime.
Government organisations can apply to the fund and their proposals are assessed by a panel before the money is released. The Ministry of Health successfully applied for funding for Kahukura and $2.75 million was awarded to the programme over four financial years.
Stuff reported evaluations of the programme’s progress, which were provided to the Ministry of Justice, showed most graduates reported no use or reduced use of methamphetamine, increased mental and physical health, and increased uptake in training, education and employment.
At the time, the ministry’s then deputy director-general mental health and addiction, Toni Gutschlag, said Kahukura filled a gap and need by engaging with a hard-to-reach segment of the community.
“Drug use is prevalent among gangs across New Zealand and can have a detrimental impact on the wider community,” she said.
“It is understood that if gang members can be supported in stopping the use and sale of drugs, that also has positive impacts on the wider community.”
In 2021, National lambasted Dame Jacinda Ardern’s Government for funding the programme and a senior Hawke’s Bay police officer focused on busting organised criminal groups also publicly criticised the funding.
Detective Sergeant Mark Moorhouse said in his letter he needed to “call BS” on claims by politicians the programme had been supported by local cops: “The bulk of us don’t support it”.
“My gang-focus staff have for the past two years fought tooth-and-nail to confront the violence and insidious harm the Mongrel Mob, in particular, have unleashed in our community,” he wrote in 2021.
“They openly flaunt the wealth they generate from the poison they infuse our communities with.
“I have seen no evidence from any gang or their leaders that they wish to distance themselves from the wealth they are generating from peddling this poison in our community.”
