The fatal stabbing of an Auckland dairy worker during an armed robbery on Wednesday night has led to accusations of Government inaction on law and order - including from a former Labour MP.
But the Police Minister has said some language used by a local community group is "inflammatory" and not "helpful".
Dr Gaurav Sharma, who was expelled from the party after making unfounded allegations of widespread bullying within Labour, has responded to a Facebook post by the Prime Minister by saying she doesn't care about crime happening under her watch.
"Shame on you and your government's inaction," Dr Sharma, a Hamilton West by-election candidate, wrote.
"You have absolutely no interest in how unsafe our citizens and communities are feeling. You live in Sandringham Prime Minister. If people aren't safe in your suburb, where are they safe?"
Jacinda Ardern posted on Facebook about the homicide at a superette in the Auckland suburb of Sandringham - which is part of Ardern's Mt Albert electorate - saying she was seeking updates from police. The perpetrator remains on the run.
"For now, what I do know is that no one should fear their loved one going to work. No one should have to confront such senseless violence or crime," she wrote.
"To the family who today mourns their lost loved one - I am so sorry this has happened. I know our Sandringham community is a tight-knit one, and they will be feeling this deeply too.
"Our job as Government is to make sure those who commit such crimes are brought to justice, and to try and prevent them occurring at all. On both counts, we will keep doing all we can."
Dairy and Business Owners chair Sunny Kaushal told AM on Thursday morning that New Zealand had become "lawless".
"Here, a law-abiding dairy worker killed for doing their job leaving us numb with shock," he said. "We hope the community will join with us to assist the friends and family of this victim in the most awful of circumstances."
Kaushal said the group has previously warned the Government that it needed to take a harder stance on crime.
"We warned someone would be seriously injured or killed," he said. "Yet we only get radio silence from a government that has our blood on their hands."
But Police Minister Chris Hipkins said that "inflammatory rhetoric" was not "particularly helpful".
"I do have a lot of sympathy for the businesses, and I do understand their frustration and I understand their concern," Hipkins said.
"But there's a few really important messages here. One, is we do need to allow the police to do their jobs. I don't think that things like having businesses, being able to defend themselves and potentially escalate these situations is going to help them. It potentially would put more people at risk.
"We need to take a deep breath here and make sure that what we're doing is actually going to make a difference for the businesses, for the victims, that's going to prevent more of this type of offending in the future."
He said it isn't clear why the business didn't have fog cannons installed, which he believes it should have been eligible for under a Government subsidy programme.
"On the surface of it, they would absolutely meet the criteria as it was at the time to get a subsidised fog cannon installed," Hipkins said. "I will await further information on that."
Sandringham Neighbourhood Support said the superette owners previously requested additional security, but were turned down by police as not a priority.
Prime Minister Ardern said at a press conference on Thursday afternoon that Hipkins had previously met with Kaushal's group and feedback was taken on board. She disagreed that her Government is soft on crime.
"What we have done is increased our spending on police, increased the preventative support that's in place. But we know we also need to keep adding in extra interventions, particularly when it's children involved.
"We already had a heightened focus on these events. Just yesterday afternoon, I was meeting with the Justice Minister, Police Minister, Minister of Social Development, again working through where there may be gaps in the system, what more we can do."
ACT Party leader David Seymour said the fatal stabbing should be a "turning point" where the Government "finally takes retail crime as seriously as it deserves".
"That it happened in the Prime Minister's electorate should be the final straw that makes the Government respond decisively," he said.
The party wants the Government to amend the criteria for its retail crime prevention fund. The fund was allocated $6 million earlier this year off the back of a spike in ram raids to pay for bollards and other protections at retail stores.
However, questions have been asked about the speed at which that money is being given to businesses and whether the criteria is fair, particularly the fact businesses have to be ram-raided before they can access it.
"We have challenged the Government to expedite the fund, particularly after someone who sought and didn't get help from it was robbed. "Instead of continuing at a glacial pace it needs to be sized up and expedited," said ACT's police spokesperson Chris Baillie.
"We have called on the Government to get tough, and smart on the epidemic of retail crime that followed the epidemic of COVID-19. We have proposed idea after idea to try and get on top of the ram raids and the robberies, but the Government has barely listened, if at all."
Hipkins told the House it's not possible for the taxpayer to subsidise security measures in every retail business in New Zealand.
"There does need to be some criteria that guide who does and who doesn't get access to those subsidies. However, I am continuing to review them."
