Mental health advocate and educator Mike King has labelled the country's mental health system as "broken".
In a fiery interview with Breakfast, he lashed out at the Ministry of Health for the way it allocates funds, saying "millions and millions have been flushed down the toilet".
"The procurement crisis needs to stop."
All of this comes in the wake of an open letter he sent to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern yesterday, stating he would be returning his New Zealand Order of Merit medal .
In the letter, King said he was returning the medal because he felt uncomfortable with the country's unchanged mental health landscape.
He told Breakfast the return of his medal was not a protest, but to show parents whose children were struggling with mental health he is standing beside them.
King said families contacted him every day after being told their children did not qualify for counselling because they are not suicidal enough.
He said children were also being discharged from hospital after a suicide attempt with little or no support. This was often done without them seeing a psychiatrist.
"I see you, I feel you."
King said he thought the Government's 2019 Wellbeing Budget would be a "sea change", but felt now this was not the case.
He said the ministry "don't even know" where the $1.9 billion mental health funding had gone, after he submitted numerous Official Information Act requests.
"It's a joke and families deserve better."
King says he is contacted on a daily basis from families who can’t get help for their suicidal children.
To make real change, King felt the ministry needed to be dismantled.
He described its attitude as those of "1950s husbands", saying it was "arrogant".
King said the ministry's response yesterday to his medal return — that he had not engaged in its procurement process with Gumboot Friday— was "patronising nonsense".
"Start telling the truth. These people are out there. I've got counsellors ready to go, I've offered the system for free to the Ministry of Health," he said.
"You can take it off my hands, you can have it. You can have all of the counsellors, you can have the booking and the billing platform we've developed, no cost to you. You can have it all for free.
"And they just look at me and go: 'Why? We've got our own systems.' Well your systems are not working and you need to wake up and start listening and I'm never giving up, I'm going to fight like hell for this."
In a statement yesterday the Ministry of Health said it "acknowledges the passion, commitment and role that Mr King plays in terms of mental health and wellbeing in New Zealand".
"We have been in communications with Mr King regarding our work programme over the past two years.
"The Ministry of Health is happy to receive an application from Gumboot Friday as part of any Government Procurement process.
"The Ministry of Health previously ran a procurement process for youth primary mental health and addiction services and did not receive a proposal from Gumboot Friday.
"There is also an open invitation for discussion."
Speaking live from the Auckland Domain on Gumboot Friday, King reminded viewers he is walking 100,000 metres in gumboots. His goal is to raise $5 million to provide 37,000 free counselling sessions for children.
He told Breakfast he had been walking since midnight, had a pulled calf and "blisters upon blisters", but would keep going.
King also said a mass haka will be performed at 6pm today, led by former All Blacks captain Buck Shelford, to represent the 654 people who died by suicide in the past year.
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