Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has faced questions after the death of a newly-married shopkeeper who was fatally stabbed during an armed robbery in her Auckland electorate on Wednesday evening.

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.

“It is devastating to see what has happened,” Ardern said, reiterating her sorrow.

Flowers were placed outside the Sandringham dairy where a 35-year -old was stabbed on Wednesday evening. Photo / Jed Bradley

She said the focus of the police was apprehending the offender, referencing their call for help from the community.

She would receive updated briefings as a local member of parliament.

She said how ram raids had been the focus in recent times but that there was “grave concern” regarding aggravated robberies.

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”.

• Police plea for public to help after Sandringham homicide and robbery
• Police appeal for help in Sandringham homicide investigation

Asked whether she was soft on crime, Ardern said she had disagreed with that consistently.

She referenced the penalties for crimes such as aggravated robberies.

Ardern said there was already a heightened focus on these events.

She had met with Justice Minister Kiri Allan and MSD minister Carmel Sepuloni about what gaps there were in the system and how they could be addressed to target offenders appropriately.

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 said she was aware of community members who worked to support local businesses

PM posts message on social media

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.

Ardern will also likely respond to comments made this morning by Reserve Bank governor Adrian Orr, which included the bank was deliberately engineering a recession to bring down inflation.

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.

The dairy was inside Ardern’s Mt Albert electorate.

“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 the 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.

“I think that is correct,” Orr said.

“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.