The ministerial advisory group set up by the Government to propose measures to reduce retail crime is being disestablished months earlier than planned after several recent resignations from the group.
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith today told the Herald the group would disband in early May instead of seeing out its intended two-year timeframe to September this year.
Last month, RNZ reported three of the five-member group had resigned in recent months, including Retail NZ chief executive Carolyn Young.
The only remaining members were its chairman, former Dairy and Business Owners Group chairman Sunny Kaushal, and Hamilton liquor retailer Ash Parmar.
Goldsmith confirmed he would scrap the group, partly due to the resignations.
“Three of the people have left and I could go through the performance of reappointing people or just wind it up early,” he said.
“It’s been very successful in getting all the work done, and they’ve got a couple of issues that they’re going to wrap up before they finish, which is one on facial recognition and the other one on the security industry.”
The group had recommended strengthening several powers for retailers, including controversial citizen’s arrest powers. Some of the proposals had been accepted and included in the Government’s Crimes Amendment Bill, which had its first reading in December.
Goldsmith claimed the group had been “very productive”, noting it had also given advice relating to antisocial behaviour which he would speak further on in the “next couple of weeks”.
Goldsmith admitted it was unlikely proposals the group was currently developing would make it through the House this term.
Announced in July 2024, the group was funded from the Proceeds of Crime fund with a budget of $1.8 million per year for two years.
The group had spent $888,024 in the 2024/25 finanical year, but exceeded that level of spending in the months between July and December this year, spending $934,146 with overall expenditure totalling $1,822,170.
Asked why he was ditching the group if it had been productive, Goldsmith said it had “basically covered all the ground that we wanted them to do”.
“The primary purpose of the whole exercise was to give some hard-hitting, at-the-coalface sort of opinions on how to deal with retail crime as a counterpoint to all the advice that we get from officials.”
Asked if the Government considered it had finished its work addressing retail crime, Goldsmith said: “No, the job is never finished.”
Had the resignations not occurred, Goldsmith said it was likely he would have retained the group until its expected end in September.
While addressing her resignation, Young told RNZ her relationship with Kaushal had become untenable.
Goldsmith accepted Kaushal could “rub up some people the wrong way” but said his decision had not been informed by Kaushal’s conduct as chairman.
“I went out deliberately to find somebody that was going to be ferocious in the defence of retail operators in this country who had enough of the crime they’ve had to face, so I think he’s been good in that role.”
Labour’s crime spokeswoman Ginny Anderson said she was not surprised by Goldsmith’s decision, saying the “political decision” to appoint Kaushal as chairman was the real problem.
“That was clear when you had really expert people like Carolyn Young from Retail New Zealand exiting the group because of his behaviour.”
Kaushal, speaking to the Herald, claimed Anderson had spread “misinformation” and was attempting to distract from her own record.
“Ginny is only highlighting her failures during her tenure as Police Minister; there was a lawlessness that crept across New Zealand.”
Kaushal said he was “very relaxed” about Goldsmith’s decision and was “very proud” of the progress his group had made.
In 2017, Kaushal joined the National Party after having stood as a candidate for Labour.
Asked if he would be contesting this year’s election, Kaushal said he was not “engaging with this distraction” but would not give a direct answer.
Adam Pearse is the Deputy Political Editor and part of the NZ Herald’s Press Gallery team based at Parliament in Wellington. He has worked for NZME since 2018, reporting for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei and the Herald in Auckland.