Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern responds to the fatal stabbing of a man in an Auckland dairy last night. Video / NZ Herald
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern disagrees that shopkeepers should be armed in light of the fatal stabbing of a man in an Auckland dairy last night.
A male offender, who has evaded police so far, allegedly entered the Rose Cottage Superette in Sandringham yesterday evening and killed the newly-married shopkeeper who was onsite.
The dairy was inside Ardern’s Mt Albert electorate, which she said was particularly sad.
“It is devastating to see what has happened,” Ardern said, reiterating her sorrow.
Ardern said she shopped at a different local dairy in the Auckland suburb but said the Sandringham dairy where the attack and robbery took place was close by.
She acknowledged the family members of the man who was killed in the Auckland dairy and said the dairy was well-supported by the local community which she was a part of.
People have gathered outside the Rose Cottage Superette in Sandringham to pay respects to the slain 35-year-old worker. Photo / Dean Purcell
The Government has regularly been criticised by the National and Act parties for not delivering stronger consequences to young offenders.
It followed a spate of ram raids and aggravated robberies earlier this year, which prompted the creation of a fund to support installation of security measures for small retailers.
Regarding yesterday’s killing, police had appealed to the public for help to identify the man responsible, who had reportedly been dressed in a black shirt, black pants, a black hat, while wearing a black and white bandana.
Ardern, speaking to media from Hamilton, said the current focus of the police was apprehending the offender. She would receive updated briefings as a local member of parliament.
She referenced her “grave concern” about aggravated robberies, despite noting a recent slight decrease in the prevalence of ram raids.
Ministers were continually talking about how they could support police and business owners in preventing crime, she said.
Ardern said the most important thing today was to acknowledge the man’s family and make sure police are well supported as possible to ensure “justice is done”.
Asked whether she was soft on crime, Ardern said she had disagreed with that consistently and spoke of the long sentences possible for those who committed offences such as aggravated robberies.
She revealed she had met with Justice Minister Kiri Allan and Minister for Social Development Carmel Sepuloni about what gaps there were in the system for addressing youth offenders.
She spoke of the complexity of dealing with offenders younger than 12, who were unable to go before the Youth Court. Ardern said the Government was focused on providing effective prevention and intervention programmes for those youth to stop them from becoming offenders.
Asked about some shopkeepers wanting to arm themselves, Ardern said she held different views on the matter.
It comes as Ardern published a heartfelt message on social media concerning the man’s death, saying “no one should have to confront such senseless violence or crime”.
“To the family who today mourns their lost loved one - I am so sorry this has happened,” she wrote.
In the Auckland suburb of Sandringham, police were called to the Rose Cottage Superette at the intersection of Haverstock Rd and Fowlds Ave at 8.05pm yesterday after an offender entered the shop armed with a knife and took the cash register.
“We are still working to establish exactly what took place, but at some point, during the incident, the dairy worker was allegedly stabbed,” police said in a statement to media just after 10pm.
The worker suffered critical injuries and was transported to hospital but died a short time later.
Hundreds had gathered outside the Rose Cottage Superette this morning to pay tribute to the deceased man. Photo / Benjamin Plummer
Police had launched a homicide investigation, with a manhunt underway for the offender. Hundreds had gathered outside the Rose Cottage Superette this morning to pay tribute to the deceased man.
Ardern was in Waikato to visit new Kāinga Ora transitional housing as well as the Waikato Regional Theatre site, which was funded through the Provincial Growth Fund.
Official cash rate increase
This morning, Reserve Bank governor Adrian Orr appeared before Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee after the bank hiked the Official Cash Rate by a record 75 basis points yesterday and pencilled in further hikes next year, raising the rate to 5.5 per cent eventually.
The bank was tightening rates to suck demand out of the economy by making credit more expensive, but it was also fighting a political battle trying to convince the public that the surge in inflation was not partly the fault of the bank which had run a loose monetary policy during the pandemic.
Orr, answering to MPs, offered an olive branch of sorts, but this was also bad news: one of the ways of ensuring a softer landing and avoiding recession is for everyone to trim back wage demands - lower pay rises, and for employers to trim back price hikes.
Green MP Chlöe Swarbrick asked Orr what he made of the commentary that the bank was deliberately engineering a recession to get ahead of inflation.
“We are deliberately trying to slow aggregate spending in the economy.”
Reserve Bank governor Adrian Orr. Photo / Mark Mitchell
National Party finance spokeswoman Nicola Willis noted that Orr’s parting remarks in his press conference on Wednesday were to wish New Zealanders a “sensibly spending Christmas”.
She asked whether this included the Government - National has been urging the Government to trim spending.
“That includes the Government,” Orr said.
The bank’s comments in its Monetary Policy Statement on Wednesday were clear it expected the Government to do its bit in fighting inflation, in part by reducing spending.
