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Speaker 1: Hither duplicy Ellen.

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Speaker 2: Look, I'm not altogether surprised that Mike King's comments on

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Speaker 2: the show yesterday have sparked a debate. And the reason

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Speaker 2: I'm not surprised is because what he said, well some

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Speaker 2: of what he said at least, is factually wrong.

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Speaker 1: Alcohol is not a problem for people with mental health issues.

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Speaker 1: It's actually the solution to our problem.

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Speaker 2: Now. Remember we are specifically talking about suicide here, and

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Speaker 2: for people with suicide suicidal ideation, alcohol is actually a

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Speaker 2: problem because what it does is at low as inhibitions.

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Speaker 2: When you're drunk, your inhibitions are a little bit lower, right,

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Speaker 2: so people are more likely to act on their feelings.

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Speaker 2: It is also a depressant. Drink enough low as your mood.

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Speaker 2: If you're already unhappy, it's going to make you more unhappy.

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Speaker 2: But then some of what he said, to be fair

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Speaker 2: to him is also his own lived experience and trying

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Speaker 2: to cope with his mental health issues.

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Speaker 1: I'm a drug addict and alcoholic in my whole life.

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Speaker 1: I use drugs and alcohol to stop that little voice

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Speaker 1: inside my head that told me that I wasn't good enough,

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Speaker 1: that I was useless.

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Speaker 2: Now, you can't argue with that as much can you,

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Speaker 2: because that's his experience, from his perspective of living through that,

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Speaker 2: and there is actually evidence that alcohol does provide a

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Speaker 2: mental escape, certainly in the moment. What I am a

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Speaker 2: little bit surprised by is the strength of the reaction

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Speaker 2: to Mike King today. I mean, I was absolutely expecting

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Speaker 2: the anti alcohol people to get wound up. They often do,

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Speaker 2: but I was not really expecting that the Labour Party

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Speaker 2: would go quite as far as they have. They have

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Speaker 2: today called for government funding of gun Boot Friday to

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Speaker 2: be reconsidered. Now just consider what that means. Right, they

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Speaker 2: are asking the government to stop helping people deal with

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Speaker 2: their mental health health issues because of what Mike King said.

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Speaker 2: Is that reasonable? I mean, let's be clear what's going

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Speaker 2: on here. This is political. There was a time when

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Speaker 2: everybody loved Mike King. Everybody thought he was a good

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Speaker 2: guy doing good work for mental health. But then he

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Speaker 2: became a political figure, didn't he Because he took on

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Speaker 2: Jacinda Ardurn when she was Prime Minister. He had a

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Speaker 2: public scrap with her because her government pulled funding for

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Speaker 2: his charity, handed back his Order of meritst metal. The

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Speaker 2: NATS then adopted him. They funded his charity once they

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Speaker 2: got into government in a way that the orders in

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Speaker 2: general is not totally happy with. And now people are

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Speaker 2: split on whether they love Mike King or not, and

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Speaker 2: probably in some cases that split will indicate pretty much

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Speaker 2: how they vote.

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Speaker 1: Now.

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Speaker 2: I'm not saying Mike King is above criticism. I'm not

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Speaker 2: saying Mike King's above scrutiny, or that this isn't a

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Speaker 2: debate worth having about what he said. I'm just saying,

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Speaker 2: bear in mind that when we do have this debate

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Speaker 2: about what he's just said, this isn't just about mental health,

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Speaker 2: This isn't just about alcohol. This is also very much

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Speaker 2: now about politics. For more from Hither Duplicy Allen Drive,

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Speaker 2: listen live to News Talk said B from four pm weekdays,

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Speaker 2: or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio