How Sunny Kaushal came to have the ear of the Government on retail crime

Sunday, 9 March 2025

Sunny Kaushal says the country has become a “paradise for thugs and thieves” and it was time to bring the the “great Kiwi attitude of giving it a go” into law enforcement.

Best known as a champion for the rights of small businesses, Sunny Kaushal has fast become the face of a controversial proposal to expand citizen’s arrest powers. Katie Ham reports.

“Never explain yourself. Your friends don't need it and your enemies won't believe it,” said American writer Elbert Hubbard.

And so said the chairperson of the Government’s new retail advisory group, Sunny Kaushal, when the Star-Times asked him whether he would be interviewed for this story.

Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith intends to give businesses more power to detain thieves by expanding citizen’s arrest powers. Behind the proposal was advice given by the Ministerial Advisory Group, headed by pub owner and small business advocate, Kaushal.

In the face of criticism, Kaushal said last week: “When you try and bring change, there will be people who like it and there will be people who don’t.”

Now, however, Kaushal is less willing to talk, citing a desire to let his work speak for itself.

So, who is Kaushal? And how has he come to be such a prominent and vocal voice in the crime landscape, reporting directly to the Justice Minister?

Paul Goldsmith announces changes allowing citizen's arrests for any Crimes Act violation, aiming to reduce retail crime. He says the moves give retailers new tools to protect their businesses.

For almost a decade, Kaushal has prided himself on being a small business owner and advocate. In 2017, he bought The Shakespeare Hotel, an Auckland microbrewery.

Advertised as “proudly serving Kiwis and tourists since 1898 with an original Kiwi pub experience”, the gastropub weathered the storms of the pandemic, the painstakingly slow City Rail Link construction and multiple burglaries.

In 2011, Kaushal became president of the community Crime Prevention Group, adding another feather to his cap when he took on the role of chairperson of the Dairy and Business Owners Group in 2018.

It’s for the latter that Kaushal became best known, routinely being called by journalists whenever a small business was targeted by a ram-raid or armed robbery.

Kaushal was never afraid to weigh in on political issues, and wouldn’t shy away from criticising the government of the day, earning him a reputation as a champion for the safety of retailers.

He joined Labour in 2008 and made his own bid for power as the Labour candidate for Pakuranga in 2011. In 2017 Kaushal switched alliances, jumping ship to join National.

'Joining National is not about me, it is a community decision, and for me my community matters,' he is reported saying at the time.

In July last year, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith created a Ministerial Advisory Group for the victims of retail crime, part of fulfilling National’s campaign promise to be ‘tough on crime’.

The group’s purpose was clear: provide the minister with independent advice, and develop evidence-based proposals, policies, and legislative recommendations.

Despite running as the Labour Party candidate for Pakuranga in 2011, Kaushal aligned himself with the National Party in more recent years.

While a “targeted expression-of-interest process” was run for the four members of the group, Goldsmith directly appointed Kaushal.

Exactly why Kaushal was chosen by the minister isn’t clear (Goldsmith only cited his “wealth of experience”).One person the Star-Times spoke to speculated whether it was to stop Kaushal criticising the Government.

It’s the proposed revamping of citizen’s arrest laws that have launched him into the limelight.

The proposal was the first of what is expected to be a suite of recommendations by the Group, but it landed with a dull thud. Chief among the concerns were safety.

In 2022, 34-year-old Janak Patel was killed by a masked robber who had stolen the cash register from the Auckland dairy he was watching for friends. Patel chased after the robber,Frederick Hobson, with a hockey stick before Hobson stabbed him.

At the time, Kaushal said the Government had ”blood on its hands” and a “sense of lawlessness is gripping the entire country”.

At his core Kaushal is a small business owner, who owns a gastropub in central Auckland.

Two and a half years later, critics have accused Kaushal of encouraging just this.

Fellow Ministerial Advisory Group member and Retail NZ CEO Carolyn Young revealed an emerging divide amongst the group when she said last week: “We don’t recommend this goes ahead in any way, shape or form. It risks a vigilante-type approach.”

Kaushal, at the time, explained: “We’re supposed to give the minister advice that is practical and evidence-based, and the reality is that New Zealand has become a self-policing society because it has to be. With one police officer to every 500 Kiwis, police can’t be everywhere.”

Kaushal’s alliance with the Justice Minister has ruffled feathers amongst fellow business advocates.

Arunjeev Singh, coordinator of the Crime Resistance Foundation, fears that where once Kaushal was a prominent advocate in the law and order sector, he is now “not able to speak openly about community issues”.

“He has changed sides and people have lost confidence in him. Business owners thought he would speak for the community and convey our feedback to the Government, but his perspective has changed.

“It seems to me that he’s more focused on the Government and their agenda, than fighting for businesses.”

Singh hoped Kaushal would push for an increase in the number of beat police officers, rather than measures like citizen’s arrests.

“The person we thought was going to speak for us is now standing behind the minister.”

Singh’s concerns were echoed by Rajesh Goel, president of the Auckland Indian Retailers Association, who further urged Kaushal to push for a victims’ fund.

“Before he went into that role, Sunny was very helpful to small businesses, but since he’s been appointed chair, I don’t see what he’s done. He’s getting almost $1000 a day and nothing has changed.”

Across two years, the Government has allowed a budget of $3.6 million for the Group, with Kaushal being paid $920 a day in addition to reimbursement for travel, meal and accommodation costs.

The Group has also been rented a $100,000 a year office space in Auckland. According to the documents, Kaushal chose the privately-owned space as it was a more appropriate environment for meetings than another option put forward by the justice ministry: desks at a Kāinga Ora office in Ellerslie.

Opposition police spokesperson Ginny Andersen has criticised why the millions allocated couldn’t have gone to more staff staff.

As of December 17, 2024 and before any recommendations had been made public, Kaushal had been paid $86,480. Fellow Group member and Retail NZ CEO Carolyn Young was paid $517 for the same amount of time.

The fees framework is set by the Government and all chairs of ministerial advisory groups are paid.

Asked about his pay, Kaushal told RNZ: “I am a small businessperson, who needs to employ people to cover my time away from the business when I am doing the advisory group work.”

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