Source: Radio New Zealand
The Ministerial Advisory Group for Victims of Retail Crime, headed by Sunny Kaushal and set up to give expert advice, has collapsed and three members quit before it was due to wind up, exposing deep differences within the retail industry. RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
The Government has long promised to be tough on crime, and legislation could see a major crackdown on retail crime – but within the retail industry, the proposed hard-line changes are controversial
The man behind the controversial moves to crack down hard on retail crime is one step closer to getting his way.
Sunny Kaushal has been on a 10-year mission to deal to retail criminals with harsher penalties and give retailers and the public more powerful tools to fight them.
The measures are now part of proposed changes to the Crimes Act 1961 and include the most disputed aspect, citizens arrests.
Submissions closed last week and they will now go to select committee.
If the amendment is passed into law it will be a victory for Kaushal, who has long fronted for dairy owners in the call for tougher laws. But it comes at a cost.
The government group headed by Kaushal, which was set up to give expert advice, has collapsed and three members quit before it was due to wind up, exposing deep differences within the retail industry.
Today The Detail talks to three journalists who have delved into the work of Kaushal and the Ministerial Advisory Group for Victims of Retail Crime (MAG).
The group was set up in July 2024 to tackle rising retail crime by providing independent, actionable, and evidence-based policy proposals. According to a government press release it was set up to advise on “changes to the Crimes Act 1961 to strengthen self-defence, anti-social behaviour policies, and security regulations”.
The Spinoff’s special correspondent, Madeleine Chapman, says she’d been thinking about Kaushal for years as he was often in the media speaking on behalf of small retail businesses, particularly dairy owners, around ram raids and other crimes.
After poring over pages of material about him, going back many years, Chapman says she was impressed by his consistent message.
“He has really been on the same beat for the whole 10 years.”
Kaushal has been calling for more police, longer sentences, and making it easier to charge people who commit the crimes, she says.
“Part of me goes: that seems kind of strange for someone who’s speaking and canvassing lots of opinions to have that same strong opinion the whole time.
“Another part of me was surprised that he has kept the energy and the momentum and I think that is why he has had such staying power,” Chapman says.
What emerged from her investigation was more than the story behind the group of retail leaders unravelling, it was about one man who continued to push through his campaign with a “little bit of tunnel vision” despite strong opposition from many parts of the retail industry.
“It is quite incredible that he has come against all these people, all of his colleagues saying all sorts of stuff. That has worked, they accepted the group’s recommendations and now it’s proposed legislation.”
Jimmy Ellingham, RNZ’s Checkpoint reporter, says when the government announced the Ministerial Advisory Group in 2024, it cited an 86 percent rise in retail crime over five years, while Kaushal pointed out that retail crime costs $2.7 billion a year.
“So this was set up in response to that and the objectives at the time were said to do the likes of empowering security guards at retail premises and give business owners of retailers more power to deal with shoplifting. There was also mention of facial recognition technology. This group was set up to look into those issues,” Ellingham says.
Ellingham and Checkpoint senior producer, Louisa Cleave, looked into ministerial advisory groups, compared their budgets and the time spent by the members.
“It’s not unusual that this was set up and the remit was a bit of a blank canvas. The minister Paul Goldsmith said on this show, ‘I want them to throw any and every idea at me’.’”
Goldsmith told Checkpoint he wanted them to push the barrow, though suggestions such as allowing people to use pepper spray to deter criminals was considered a step too far, says Cleave.
The group had a very good scope of experts but somewhere along the way, something went wrong, she says.
“There’s been one aspect that seems to be the most controversial and that’s the citizens arrest powers. We’ve heard from two quite strong groups, Retail NZ and the Police Association, since submissions closed last week that they have some serious concerns.”
Chapman says submissions show the concerns around arming security guards and making citizens arrests are shared by others in the industry, like petrol station owners.
“They were against any sort of citizens arrest or any sort of expectation that your regular retail worker should be trying to stop armed offenders. Currently what they do is say, ‘keep safe, make sure people are safe, the person will likely leave, call the police’.
“And then when you read the submissions some of them are quite strongly worded about how ridiculous this whole idea sounded.”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
