Conflict what conflict?

Written By: - Date published: 1:22 pm, July 12th, 2024 - 16 comments
Categories: crime, law, law and "order", national, paul goldsmith, same old national - Tags:

Someone should call the States Services Commission. And check with them if the Government had handled the appointment of Sunny Kaushal as head of a new Government advisory group appropriately.

The details of the appointment are contained in this Radio New Zealand post. From the post:

The government has announced a new advisory group headed by the chair of the dairy and business owners group, to help ensure fewer victims of crime.

Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith and Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee made the announcement at a dairy in Ellerslie on Thursday afternoon.

Goldsmith said it was budgeted to cost about $1.8 million a year for at least two years, largely paid through the proceeds of crime fund.

The group would “engage directly with victims, workers, business owners, retail experts and advocacy groups over the next two years to provide the government specific proposals to address urgent challenges in retail crime,” he said.

“New Zealand has seen an exponential growth in retail crime over the past five years.”

He said he wanted the group to look into matters like using security cards, enabling business owners to legitimately defend their property, and the potential for using facial recognition.

“We’re open to proposals and we want this group particularly to do the policy work to come up with suggestions in that area quickly … we want to get things done faster, to go further, in the retail crime space.”

Lets see, complex legal issues surrounding the right to self defence and the right to defend your property and thorny privacy issues relating to access to and use of facial data. And clearly needing someone to coordinate this work.

My first question is why would Sunny Kaushal be considered for the job? I am not sure of his qualifications but I am aware that he is a businessman and the owner of the Shakespeare Tavern. I met him a number of times when he was a member of the Labour Party and we both contested the New Lynn selection in 2017. He did not impress me as an intellectual giant or having any particular expertise in any particular area.

He then went off to National presumably after it became clear that there was no route for him to become a Labour MP.

He has since been a voiciferous complainer about retail crime. He has advocated for youth detention centres and for the law to be amended to make parents responsible for children under 18 who get into trouble. He also opposed smoking reforms implemented by the last Government on the basis they affected the economic viability of dairies.

The use of $3.6 million from the proceeds of crime fund is interesting. The fund is meant to fund the following initiatives:

  • Expansion of alcohol and other drug treatment services
  • Initiatives to fight organised criminal groups dealing in methamphetamine and other drugs
  • Initiatives to address mental health issues within the criminal justice system
  • Initiatives that address crime-related harm to communities and improve community wellbeing

The funding is allocated through an application process. It will be interesting to see the paperwork involved in this particular application. Unlike most announcements there is nothing on the Beehive website about this particular announcement.

Last term National made a song and dance about how many advisory groups Labour appointed and also attacked Nanaia Mahuta for contracts that her husband Gannin Ormsby had with government agencies. The one difference is that Ormsby at least was qualified to handle the sorts of issues he dealt with.

I am sure the OIAs are flying around. And that we will hear more about this story.

16 comments on “Conflict what conflict? ”

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  1. PsyclingLeft.Always 1
    12 July 2024 at 3:02 pm

    Old Sunny…. national party spokescrony. Wasn't hard to see him slithering into this new position.

    There is a terrible blight ( very often in poor areas) of dairies selling drugs. Alcohol and smokes/vapes.

    They seemingly have no qualms as they are legal… nevermind the harm they cause. Esp the,as yet unknown, vape harm… particularly to young (incl very young)

    Old ex Labour now Nat Sunny had called Labours actions to restrict as "racist". The links are initially on google Newshub 22/8/23…but page not found. Newshub closed.

    Shame on Sunny

  2. Tiger Mountain 2
    12 July 2024 at 3:03 pm

    Sunny is your basic opportunist. The small traders he purports to represent are at the bottom of the capitalist retailing eco system, often buying their stock from Pak’n’Save or (near) expired goods merchants. They sell liquor, tobacco, vapes and related products, and price gouge grocery items in poorer communities.

    When people talk “food security” it includes access. So if you do not have transport, the dairy is where you might go for basics. Fair enough for the occasional convenient purchase but mere exploitation if it is regular.

  3. lprent 3
    12 July 2024 at 3:37 pm

    Goldsmith rejected suggestions setting up the group was a reactionary move, saying it had been in development for "a number of months".

    The government was expecting to have another four or five members on the advisory group, he said.

    He rejected the suggestion having the group set up would curb the criticism from the groups Kaushal belonged to.

    Actually that would be my reading of the situation. This is effectively a payoff to reduce bad headlines.

    From the times that I have been around Sunny Kaushal (also at Labour party events), I had him picked as only really being interested in his own self-interest. I always considered him to be completely indifferent to the interests of others unless, by coincidence, it assisted that objective. Nothing I have seen since, including his support for robbed dairy owners, has made me change that opinion.

    I also thought that his innate political incompetence would prevent him from his ambitions. It looks like I was wrong. He has finally managed to find the lever, that of dairy owners misery, that allows him to monetise his self-interested ambitions.

    But I guess that National really wanted him to shut up. I don't expect that he will be capable of any useful or effective advice.

    Personally I think that the most effective way to stop making small retail businesses a target would have been to reduce the number of places selling addictive drugs – ie tobacco and nicotine. It has been the obvious reason why these robberies have been happening – as Sunny himself pointed out in 2017 (and that is advice I don't expect him to repeat now).

    But National, Act, and NZ First are so overwhelmed by the nicotine pushers both as donors and suppliers of their MPs and staffers, that they didn't and won't take the best steps to alleviate the crime problem that it causes. I suspect that Sunny will be targeted by them as well.

    Instead his upcoming advice will probably lean heavily on 'research' paid for by the Tobacco lobby like this one reported in 2021 by the NZ Herald, who in characteristic deference to industry interests didn't report the most interesting feature of the study – ie who funded it.

    A link has been drawn between an overwhelming spike in dairy robberies targeting cigarettes and New Zealand's tobacco tax hikes.

    A paper published in the Safer Communities journal this month supports the claim that tax hikes contributed to a spike in aggravated tobacco-related crime across the country in 2016 and 2017.

    As tobacco became increasingly unaffordable, it was stolen for personal use or to supply the black market, the paper said.

    As a comment in that article pointed out the paper was sponsored by the foundation for a smoke free world, which was a foundation solely funded by tobacco giant Philip Morris at the time.

    I trust that any 'advice' from Sunny's advisory group will be carefully OIA'ed to see just how corrupted by tobacco funding and ex-flacks it becomes.

    • Darien Fenton 3.1
      13 July 2024 at 3:58 am

      Sunny K has called for dairy owners to be able to defend themselves. With guns.

      • KJT 3.1.1
        13 July 2024 at 7:24 am

        Sunny. Another fucking idiot.

        Will fit in well with the current coalition of clowns.

      • Belladonna 3.1.2
        13 July 2024 at 6:48 pm

        Evidence?

        I've seen him commenting that dairy owners are likely to arm themselves for protection – but not calling for this to happen.

        https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2022/06/prime-minister-jacinda-ardern-says-arming-dairy-owners-won-t-reduce-ram-raids.html

        • lprent 3.1.2.1
          15 July 2024 at 12:33 am

          Repeatably been saying that gun licenses were being sought of that various forms or weapons or various types being purchased from at least 2017 to 2023 in my brief search.

          Essentially this is the way that Sunny gets around the various criminal laws against incitement to violence. He just implies that everyone else is doing it and therefore that it is a wise idea.

          Problem is that if a shop owner actually tries 'self-defence' when they are not immediately at risk of harm and injures someone using a weapon that they purchased for 'self-defence' then they are going to get charged. That they are getting robbed of property at the time simply isn't a defence. They would have to show that they were in imminent physical danger – not that they were just being stupid.

          Problem with that approach for Sunny is that all it takes is a shop owner having evidential material around from someone like Sunny encouraging preemptive 'self-defence', and it becomes likely that he gets pulled in on charges of inciting a criminal offence as well. There is a reason why 'incites', 'abets', and 'counsels' are some of the more common verbs in the Crimes Act. Including Part 4 "Parties to the commission of offences"

          May get off in court with a jury, but the police would make a point of dragging it out in the courts including appeals. Police, crown lawyers, and judges take a dim view of heading into a world that ends in shopkeepers killing someone in their shop because "they looked at dangerous to me at the time" – which is where it gets to pretty fast.

          Having a thinly veiled "but I didn't actually say that" defence to incitement generally can be torn apart in court, especially when a shop-keeper defending themselves on assault or murder charges start using Sunny's words as part of their own defence. Police, prosecutors and judges also love having a go at people who incite implicitly incite crimes, getting others to commit them.

          And of course, even if the police don't lay charges, there are always private prosecutions and even wrongful death actions.

  4. Visubversa 4
    12 July 2024 at 5:28 pm

    A product of Sunny's transactional approach to politics. "I do this for you therefore you will do this for me". He waka jumped from Labour because they were not prepared to give him the rewards to which he thought he should be entitled.

    Now, the NACTs want him to continue being a "useful idiot" – to shut up about today's crime if it cannot be blamed on Labour – and to make it look as if they are actually doing something – however superficial, about a very deep seated problem.

  5. Ad 5
    12 July 2024 at 7:10 pm

    Sunny Kaushal from personal experience is a capacious asshole.

    Nothing good will come of anything ge produces.

    Would be great if MO Deborah Russel would name him for who he really is.

    • tc 5.1
      14 July 2024 at 9:26 am

      I remember her…..lost a winnable seat, hardly sighted since, not sticking it to the CoC along with so many of the current crop.

      Wtf are they waiting for ? Does it all have to go through chippie or are they simply not bothered calling it like it is.

      • Ad 5.1.1
        14 July 2024 at 10:11 am

        Winnable? Winnable?

        Deborah Russell lost a heartland Labour seat that had been defended for decades like dwarves in front of their mountain kingdom. Then she failed to provide any apology for the loss, has not explained what she would do differently next time, pissed off her LEC, and confirmed she wants to stand again.

  6. Obtrectator 6
    12 July 2024 at 10:44 pm

    Well what does one usually find in Da Bog*? That's right …

    * Dairy And Business Owners Group

  7. thinker 7
    13 July 2024 at 5:19 pm

    National won't lose the next election if they do things right.

    The "dairy community" (my collective noun for dairy and small business owner fed up of risking their lives for the margins on milk, bread and potato chips) are closely watching this government. They got behind them on the promise of help, so they will quickly take away that support if they find themselves dumped on like the cancer patients.

    From the tone of the article, we're right on schedule.

    One thing I've noticed about Luxon is common knowledge – he seems to see his role as CEO of NZ Inc and so, like all great CEOs the first turnaround is to do a culling of workers. Anyway, I digress.

    The implication from him seeing his role as CEO of NZ Inc is that he is ticking off his quarterly KPIs when he's done what he said he would, not when the problems are resolved.

    Notice a lot of new legislation, like gang patches. Luxon's ticking off as 'done' when the legislation is in place, not when the problem has been fixed. Same with boot camps. New legislation, 10 kids starting boot camp, target met. Same with this. Appointment made for a think tank on small business crime, target met, on to the next target.

    IMHO, he meets with people who already like him, he visits things that already succeed (if you were a prospective NZ PM and had to choose between visiting McDonalds or a promising new kiwi startup, what would you do?) and when reporters ask him difficult questions, he insults their intelligence by changing the subject, (sometimes quite dramatically), instead of facing up to them.

  8. Anker 8
    13 July 2024 at 8:17 pm

    Sunny none too bright, but strategically a good move by the Govt. It will quieten Sunny down if he's on the team who are having tocome up with solutions. An old trick

    Having said all this, I really hope this group comes up with something that works. Terrible what these small dairy owners experience in terms of crime. Wrong

  9. Justme 9
    14 July 2024 at 10:05 am

    Lets face it with National is they create jobs for THEIR BOYS. In other words You Scratch My Back and I Will Scratch Yours…"

    NZ taxpayers money will be spent on this 'Advisory Group' that will probably in due course find its way into the NZ National Party coffers/bank accounts.

    Crime even in the retail industry has been around for centuries, I doubt even an 'advisory group' will make any great achievement.

    As is wont of politicians is the NZ taxpayers are again the Ambulance at the Bottom of the Cliff for the spending sprees of politicians no matter what political party they hark from or to.

    I do wonder as to when this government will have an 'Advisory Group' on White Collar crime which too is a major problem even here in NZ???!!!! Will their hesitation be because alot of those that are into white collar crime are actually the very ones that donate to say National in the lead up to elections???!!!

    As the years go by my trust of politicians whether local or central diminish. They ALL proclaim these pre-election promises but never deliver on those promises. Instead it comes across they develop an allergy to being honest with NZers.

  10. mpledger 10
    14 July 2024 at 11:02 am

    Goldsmith was complaining about the growth of crimes in the dairy retail business on RNZ and why there needs to be action. And RNZ jumped in with the fact that sex related crimes were the fastest growing crime in that area. Of course Goldsmith wanted to hedge away from that because, it's most likely the shop owners who are preying on their shop workers, and it's not likely that going to be investigated with any vigour by Sunny Kausha's advisory group.

    Let's just hope that any person subject to a personal attack in a Diary has the same right to defence as owners do … even whey the crime isn't robbery.

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