Paul Goldsmith: Justice Minister talks new Ministerial Advisory Group for victims of retail crime

Retail criminals will be paying the price of their actions.

The new Ministerial Advisory Group - set up by the Government for the victims of retail crime - will be funded out of the proceeds of crime fund.

Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith told Andrew Dickens he wants the group to come with specific proposals quickly, to make changes to law to better deal with the problem.

He says there's no doubt the group will offer "confronting solutions" - but the government is committed and open to all ideas.

Leaked report suggests Kiwirail shouldn't run Interislander ferries 

TVNZ reports the independent advisory group, set up earlier this year, reported back to Ministers last month with a range of options. 

The group's preference was for a separate entity to run the ferries. That could be   new state owned enterprise so that there would still be government oversight.

Goldsmith, speaking as State Owned Enterprises Minister, told Andrew Dickens he wouldn't be drawn into specifics. 

He says the government is open to all options - but won't be rushing a decision. 

LISTEN ABOVE

 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Retail crime. It's theresen eighty six percent of the past
five years. But what is being done to fix it?
A new Ministerial advisory Group is on the way apparently,
which the government says we'll link victims with policymakers. Community
leader sunny Kashal is set to be the chair. Will
this mean any meaningful change? Well, Paul Goldsmith as our
Justice minister with we now had the Paul we top

(00:22):
of the morning.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
There.

Speaker 1 (00:23):
Working groups have got a bad name. It's the old
Labour trick of hiding a problem in them and committeeizing
things away. Are you hiding a problem in a working group?

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Certainly not. What we want is for this group, who
are led by sunny Sha Karshel, who know the area well,
and I want them to come up with specific proposals
quickly so that we can make changes to laws to
better deal with the retail prime problem that we've got.
The issue is we've got a lot of work going

(00:53):
on in the justice space. As you know, we're giving
the police extual powers to deal with gangs, were toughening sentences,
is getting three strikes back, bringing new categories for young offenders.
So there's a huge amount of work going through the
justice system. I'm worried that we need to do more
in the retail space. There are capacity issues, and that's

(01:14):
why I'm bringing in this extra group to come up
with specific proposals.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
Well, I would suggest two years and just under two
million dollars worth of funding. There's not very much time
to actually get something really happening, nor is it continuing.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
So you know, oh, well, I don't want them to know.
I don't want to want it in two years to
do anything. I want some ideas to start flowing in
the first few months. And you know, particularly I've got
them focused on that issue around security guards and owners
of businesses what they can and can't do, and there's
widespread concern around that. You know, I think everybody, all

(01:47):
your listeners will have seen examples of people just walking
out of shops without paying. And the answer can't be
just for nobody to do anything unless a police person
happens to be nearby. So that's one issue that we
really want to get them focused on.

Speaker 1 (02:03):
So how will we measure their success? When can they
deliver the results? And will you act on their recommendations?

Speaker 2 (02:09):
Well, will measure the success by some specific proposals that
actually make a difference. Yes, well, I fully expect and
you've probably have spoken to Sunny Postil over years. He's
pretty strong on a whole lot of issues, and I
expected they will make us feel very uncomfortable in some
of the proposals. But we're up for some significant change

(02:31):
in this area because what we've seen a massive increase
in retail crime needs a different response. We've got to
do something different to get a different outcome. So that's
why we're up for change.

Speaker 1 (02:40):
Well, we keep on talking about Sonny Kashaw, but who
else will be on this advisory working group thing.

Speaker 2 (02:45):
Well, we've just announced them that we're going to have
four or five other spots on the group, and we're
lots of people specting that we haven't decide that we're
going to decide that over the next couple of weeks,
we'll get some people together and they'll be on their way.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
Well, good luck.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
And the good news is that this is going to
be funded out of the Proceeds of Crime fund. So
this is so the criminals themselves will be paying for
this group to do the job.

Speaker 1 (03:08):
Well, we can't wait for their recommendations, and the sooner
the better now as Minister for State Owned Enterprises. An
advisory group has recommended the Kiwi Rail ditch the Cook
Ferries becomes a separate, privately owned entity of taxpayers. Union
Curier poll says the forty three percent of New Zealander
I think that's a great idea. What do you think?

Speaker 2 (03:26):
Well, look, I'm not going to speculate on linked documents obviously,
but you know we're working our way through. The primary
issue is aid to ensure that the ferries today are
run safely and that's obviously the role of the maritime authorities.
And then secondly we're working through a process to find
some new fairies.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
And minister options. Kimi Rail made the same mistake yesterday
where they failed to actually talk about leaked documents, and
of course they looked a bit silly. But if the
document has been leaked and the document existed, is the
document real, this is going to happen? Is this the
advice from the advisory group?

Speaker 2 (04:00):
Yes? Or no? Well, look that there have been suggestions
made and government's made no decisions yet, but we're open
to all possibilities.

Speaker 1 (04:08):
Well, when will the document become unleaked and just on
public on public show and we can really get in
and get into the debate and make a decision.

Speaker 2 (04:17):
Well I'm not sure the exact timing of that, but
or all sort of all documents ultimately become available. The
complication and relation to the theories is that we're also
in the middle of negotiations to organize an exit from
the previous three billion dollar plan, and so that there
is an element of the commercial sensitivity around that.

Speaker 1 (04:37):
Paul enjoy We can go to the AVS and I thank
you so much for your time.

Speaker 2 (04:41):
For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to
news talks it'd be from six am weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.