Crime Prevention Chair is an idiot - Tukaki

Image: Matthew Tukaki, Chair of the National Maori Authority

The Chair of the National Maori Authority has told the The president of New Zealand's Crime Prevention Group, Sunny Kaushal, to hand in his resignation after he suggested that Dairy owners would end up on the dole queue if the couldn’t sell cigarettes:

“"People who come to the dairies aren't just buying cigarettes, they are also buying other stuff but they come for the cigarettes. Cigarette sales for the diaries are on average 50 percent of the revenue, so if the Government is removing that 50 percent revenue they will be out of their jobs.” Kushal said

Tukaki said that statement was nonsense as was much of an interview conducted with TV 3:

“The data tells us very clearly that the majority of stock taken in dairy robberies are smokes alongside small amounts of cash – so even on that front it stands to reason that smokes out of dairies could see crime drop – but the other suggestion that dairies not being able to sell smokes would see owners on the dole queue is weakest of all” Tukaki said

“The reality is we no longer shop like it’s the 1950’s and if anything has called of Dairies it’s the same big beast that has killed of the neighbourhood butcher, the grocer, the fruit shop owners and that’s the supermarkets – so Sunny is either uneducated or grasping at straws or both. In any event if he purports to represent a crime prevention group then its obvious he doesn’t – he represents his own view and his view is just plan crazy talk” Tukaki said

“The reality is being a smoke free nation has massive economic benefits and the most obvious is the billions we can save in health. The truth is we cut the smokes and the billions we save in health can be redirected to fund cancer drugs, better health outcomes for Maori and so much more.” Tukaki said

“Sunny is out of touch with reality”