OPINION: Principal challenges Prime Minister’s statement

<h2>Pat Newman&comma; President of Te Tai Tokerau Principals Association&comma; has challenged the prime Minister to show &&num;8220&semi;where the supposed money to help with children effected by drugs and other mental health issues actually is&comma; because it certainly isn’t getting to the children&&num;8221&semi;&period; <&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>Newman reacted strongly to the Prime Minister’s statement on 6pm <em>TVNZ1 News<&sol;em>&comma; last night that funding was already in place to help these children&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The Prime Minister must be getting appalling advice from her bureaucrats in their comfortable warm Wellington offices&comma; because the one thing everyone is clear about up here at the coal face is that the funding provided is almost non-existent&period; Waiting lists of over a year are common and totally unacceptable&period; As just one example&comma; the 1079 children identified last year needing counselling services to overcome past trauma and abuse&comma; are still needing them The problem is getting bigger each day&comma; and we are fed up with being expected to help these children with our hands tied behind our backs&excl;” he said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He went onto say&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;I challenge these people who seem to be able to pull up whatever statistics suit&comma; to appear before a group of Te Tai Tokerau principals and professionals and explain exactly where this money we supposedly have for such services&comma; can be found&period; We shouldn’t even be dealing with these problems&period; This is a Mental Health issue&comma; but the kids are just dumped on us&excl;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;I believe&comma;&&num;8221&semi; he continued&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;that NZ has some simple choices&period; Find the money now to invest in these children’s futures&comma; or tell the public instead&comma; that whilst NZ has the lowest borrowing against GDP&comma; its gained by consigning these children and others&comma; to the prison system in the future&excl;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;