Police are searching for a single male offender linked to an aggravated robbery in Auckland’s Sandringham last night, that led to the death of a dairy owner.

According to police, the man entered the Rose Cottage shortly after 8pm last night with a knife. He took the cash register and during an altercation allegedly stabbed the worker, who later died in hospital.

Detective inspector Scott Beard called the stabbing a “tragedy” and said his thoughts were with the man’s family.

“The Sandringham community will continue to see an increase of police around the area in response to this incident,” he said.

“From what we know at this point, the robbery involved a male offender who was acting alone. An initial description of this offender is that he was wearing all dark clothing – black shoes, cap and a long-sleeved top.”

Anyone with information is asked to come forward to police.

Last week, The Spinoff’s Alex Casey detailed how Trade Me had apologised after an automatically generated advertisement on Instagram suggested that Mein Kampf might be a good Christmas gift. “We’re really sorry this happened,” said Sally Feinson, Trade Me’s director of brand, explaining that an algorithm error had created the Instagram post.

But it didn’t stop there. Yesterday, a very focused Spinoff staff member looking for story ideas on the Trade Me website stumbled upon a listing for a Nazi-era postcard, depicting the four signatories to the Munich Agreement, which allowed the German state to annex part of Czechoslovakia in the run-up to World War 2. The item, which had reached bidding for more than $180 at the time, was listed in the “$1 reserves” section of the Trade Me homepage, where the auction giant promotes items to bid on for cheap.

When asked about why this particular item, out of the plethora of $1 reserves on the website each day, was featured on the homepage, Trade Me’s policy and compliance manager James Ryan said that Trade Me had strict rules around offensive items and memorabilia. “Historical items from the World War II era can be listed onsite, but there are strict rules around how they can be marketed. If we believed they were promoting hateful or intolerant ideologies we would remove the item immediately and where necessary, inform any relevant Government agencies,” he said.

“We understand that these items aren’t for everyone, but they can be legally bought and sold in New Zealand and we don’t believe it’s our place to make that decision for Kiwi.”

He added that the Trade Me team is reviewing the algorithms to make sure recommendations on the Trade Me home page are appropriate and relevant for all users.

Crowds have gathered outside an Auckland dairy where a worker was stabbed last night following an aggravated robbery.

According to police, an offender entered the Rose Cottage in Sandringham shortly after 8pm armed with a knife. They took the cash register and during an altercation allegedly stabbed the worker, who later died in hospital.

“We know this incident will be extremely concerning and unsettling for our community,” said police in a statement. A homicide inquiry is now under way.

The Spinoff’s Jane Yee was at the police cordon this morning and said hundreds of locals had gathered to pay their respects.

Flowers have been laid outside the dairy, which will remain closed while police conduct their investigation. Sandringham residents can expect to see a “significant police presence” as the scene examination is carried out and witnesses are spoken to.

“Police would like to hear from anyone who was in the area around the time of this incident, who may have seen something which could assist us in identifying and locating the offender,” the statement said.

Some news from last night that you may have missed. Jacinda Ardern will meet with Finland’s prime minister Sanna Marin in New Zealand next week – the first time the two counterparts have met in person.

Marin, who is the first Finnish leader to visit New Zealand, will be accompanied by her minister for development cooperation and foreign trade and a business delegation for the three-day long Auckland visit. The meeting between the leaders will fall against the backdrop of ongoing discussion over New Zealand’s free trade deal with the European Union.

“New Zealand and Finland are natural partners. We share similar approaches and views on many international issues, including the importance of the rule of law, multilateralism, sustainability, and free and open trade,” Ardern said.

“We look forward to building our trade and investment relationship with Finland, utilising the opportunities presented by the conclusion of our free trade agreement with the European Union.  The ongoing and active support of friends such as Finland is welcome as we move toward signing and ratifying the FTA as soon as possible.”

While Ardern and Marin have never met, the two have often been featured together in the media due to their similar-ish paths into power. Both are women who became leaders of their countries in their mid-30s and both fall on the centre left of politics. Marin most recently made headlines after grumpy people got even grumpier when videos of her partying were leaked to the media.

This week’s episode of Gone by Lunchtime is a little different, as Toby is joined by rising parliamentary stars Kiri Allan, Erica Stanford and Chlöe Swarbrick in front of a live audience of Spinoff Members.

Long time Spinoff readers will remember that Allan, Stanfard and Swarbrick wrote a series of diary entries during the tough 2017 campaign. Since then, they’ve gone from first time MPs to major success stories in each of their respective parties.

Listen to the podcast below, then read the write ups from Toby on each of the three candidates.

The week lost in parliament due to the Queen’s death is being given as the reason why parliament is sitting under urgency all week but that hasn’t washed with Act’s David Seymour, whose response headlines this item (“It’s never good to blame the Queen, but especially for something that she didn’t do,” is the full quote) or Te Pāti Māori’s Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, who said “The reality is, is that they [the government] have been really, really slack in how they’ve brought legislation to the House, that’s what their primary role is.”

There are 24 bills being put through the House this week. Four will move forward without going through the select committee process, meaning the public don’t get to have their say on the proposed legislation. Stuff’s Luke Malpass has a good run down on the situation.

Want to read The Bulletin in full? Click here to subscribe and join over 36,000 New Zealanders who start each weekday with the biggest stories in politics, business, media and culture.  

National has announced it’s ditching its controversial plan to scrap the top tax rate of 39%, using the cover of the growing official cash rate.

It comes after the Reserve Bank revealed yesterday that the OCR was being pushed up by 0.75% to 4.25% – a 14-year high. But the news was even worse for next year, with the OCR now expected to hit 5.5% and a recession being forecast.

As Today FM’s Tova O’Brien described this morning, it’s a bit of a “get out of jail free card” for National.

But both the government and National’s potential coalition partner, Act, have latched onto National’s so-called “u-turn” on tax. “I just don’t think you can trust National on tax,” finance minister Grant Robertson told media. “There’s been so many u-turns over the few weeks on policy, it’s hard to keep up.”

Act’s David Seymour went a step further: “[Christopher Luxon’s] gone down to the parking lot, put the diesel on the tarmac and done a big doughy, lighting it up in his Nissan,” said Seymour.

Speaking to RNZ this morning, National’s finance spokesperson Nicola Willis denied a flip flop and said the party had always stayed consistent when it came to tax. “We’ve always said we will be careful managers of the economy and we will respond to the fiscal and economic conditions,” she said.

The economic conditions presented by the Reserve Bank yesterday were enough to see dumping that top tax rate become untenable, Willis said. “What we saw yesterday was a triple whammy of bad news: interest rates staying higher for longer, inflation yet to peak… and not only a recession for a year forecast for but very slow growth after that.”

And in response to Seymour’s jibe, Willis told Tova O’Brien that National had not done a “doughy” either – but instead done what New Zealanders would expect them to do in the face of growing economic pressures.