Retail crime: Advisory group member resigns over "unpleasant" work environment, doesn't offer specifics
Carolyn Young says she can't work with Sunny Kaushal anymore.
The falling out, it appears, is a direct clash between Kaushal and Young more than anything else.
A member of the government's advisory group on tackling retail crime has quit after her relations soured with panel chair Sunny Kaushal, it emerged on January 26, 2026.
Carolyn Young is the third member of the Ministerial Advisory Group for the victims of retail crime to have exited in the last two months, 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 justice minister Paul Goldsmith, who constituted the advisory group, has said the pair had been promoted at work and had other things to do.
The falling out, it appears, is a direct clash between Kaushal and Young more than anything else. The chief executive officer of Retail NZ, a membership-based advocacy organisation representing retailers across the country, went public with her frustration on Monday. She told RNZ's Checkpoint her relations with Kaushal became “untenable”; and that she was upset after her professionalism was questioned, presumably by the group's chair and also the Dairy and Small Business Group – a collective of small retailers that Kaushal used to head.
"I resigned because it really became untenable in terms of the relationship with the chair and some of the ongoing communication I’d had from them and himself, really implicating my professionalism and who I am and how I work… we know there were issues previously around what the Dairy Owners Association put out about me, which was a personal attack on me,” she said.
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Young didn't offer any specific instances that led her to conclude her relations with Kaushal had become untenable. In her interview with Checkpoint, she seemed to still have faith in Kaushal's deep expertise in the retail sector and the value he brings to the advisory group.
“My personal opinion is obviously that I think he should be involved in the group. He’s been involved in retail for a long period of time and has been speaking up on behalf of dairy owners for many years now. I think it’s important to have that voice,” she said of Kaushal.
Kaushal's leadership ability though was uncertain, she added. "I’m not sure that he’s necessarily the right person as the chair, but the minister clearly has confidence in him and isn’t about to make a change.”
The advisory group was set up in July 2024 for two years with a budget of up to $1.8 million funded mainly from the Proceeds of Crime Fund. The Labour Party has been critical of the group and has thrown everything at it to see what sticks – from questioning the group's utility to the quality of its recommendations to the money being spent on the panel.
The panel's expenditure has piqued significant public interest. In his first year as the group's chair Kaushal billed $238,625, at a daily rate of $920, according to a RNZ report. The justice ministry's central Auckland office lease to the panel sits at $100,000 per year.
Nobody has offered evidence that would suggest any of this expenditure is unusual by government standards, not even Kaushal's worst critics. The day she unloaded on the group and its work culture, Young told RNZ the payout and expenses were acceptable if consistent with other advisory chairs, and said she expects the ministry to review spending on office space and other costs for accountability.
The ministerial advisory group is a part of a long-standing tradition of government panels that assist in policymaking. The cabinet manual that governs these panels affords the chair a daily fees of between $770 and $1,645. Kaushal’s fee of $920 a day (approved by the justice minister) is towards the lower end of the permitted range.
As for the panel's outcomes, Young has largely offered skepticism but not all's doom and gloom in her assessment. "There’ve been a couple of pieces of legislation that have been put to the government that the minister’s keen on. I think the key piece being really the trespass for me, extending those requirements will be a good thing that they’ll have been able to achieve,” Young said.
