'Been good': Goldsmith says retail crime advisory group will wrap up early
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith and Sunny Kaushal. (RNZ/Finn Blackwell)
Chair Sunny Kaushal says he is happy with the outcomes the advisory group has achieved in a short span.
The government's advisory group on retail crime will wind up a few months early since it had already done its job, and that filling the ongoing vacancies won't make sense at the fag end of its tenure, Paul Goldsmith indicated on Tuesday.
The National-led government constituted the Ministerial Advisory Group for the victims of retail crime in July 2024 for two years with a budget of up to $1.8 million funded mainly from the Proceeds of Crime Fund. The group was to work till September but the justice minister says it will be disestablished in May.
“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,” NZ Herald quoted Goldsmith as saying.
The minister added that "basically [the group] covered all the ground that we wanted them to do”. He also indicated finding replacements for members who resigned recently would be just performative given no new recommendations from the group will realistically make to Parliament in the current government term.
Sunny Kaushal told Awaaz he was happy with the outcomes the advisory group has achieved in a short span, pointing to a few key successes. "In just over a year, the MAG has delivered five substantial, legislative-ready reform reports," he said.
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"Two of our recommendations – shoplifting consequences and citizen's arrest powers – are included in the Crimes Amendment Bill. Our work on trespass legislation reform has been accepted by the government and is ready for introduction in Parliament, while recommendations on antisocial behaviour and personal safety are under consideration."
Last month, Carolyn Young became the third member of the advisory group to have exited since Decmeber 2025, leaving the five-member panel with just two members; Kaushal and Hamilton liquor retailer Himanshu Parmar.
Lindsay Rowles left last month after he was appointed chief executive of Mitre10 New Zealand, a role he expected to begin from March 9, 2026. The third one to leave was Michael Bell of Michael Hill. Both of them haven't publicly offered a reason for their exit, but Goldsmith has said the pair had been promoted at work and had other things to do.
Young, the chief executive officer of Retail NZ – a membership-based advocacy organisation representing retailers across the country – quit last month saying her relations with Kaushal had become "untenable'.
“Three of the people have left and I could go through the performance of reappointing people or just wind it up early,” NZ Herald quoted Goldsmith as saying. Had the resignations not occurred, Goldsmith said it was likely he would have retained the group until its expected end in September.
“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,” NZ Herald quoted him as saying.
Asked if the government considered it had finished its work addressing retail crime, Goldsmith said: “No, the job is never finished.”
