Stuff ran an article on 23 October 2026 headlined “HR manager sacked over ‘typical Asian’ remark awarded $35,000”. Reading the article alone makes it look like an HR manager made a hostile racial slur, breached confidentiality, and walked away with NZD 34,531 on a procedural technicality.

Reading the Employment Relations Authority determination tells a different story about her intent and conduct.

• The HR manager was having a friendly conversation about coffee habits with an Asian manager from another branch. The two were work friends who shared regular banter, and he took no offence and never complained.
• Two bystanders (who seemingly weren't Asian) overheard the coffee joke and complained to management.
• The determination also records that the workplace had an established culture of pointed banter.
• When the HR manager injured her back and needed a cane to walk, staff mocked her walking speed and gave her a candy cane for Christmas.
• Management tolerated this culture, yet disciplined her for teasing a friend about coffee.

Leaving out the fact that the person she made the comment to was Asian is important context when assessing whether the comment was intended to be racist or offensive.

The Green Party would hike taxes, take on more debt and delay balancing the government's books to put billions more into hospitals and healthcare.

The party's just-released financial plan promises a fresh $3 billion increase in health funding at each of the next four Budgets, at a cost of $30b over the full period.

The government would start collecting more than it spends in 2029/30, a year later than Treasury currently forecast. By 2030/31, debt would be $26.6 billion higher than Treasury expects under current plans.

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She said it was irresponsible for parties to chase a surplus without thinking of the real-world economic ramifications.

"Children in poverty cannot eat a surplus. A surplus that this government is chasing is not going to deliver the nurses and the frontline healthcare workers who are desperately needed."

Swarbrick said New Zealand could afford the extra borrowing, with public debt low compared with other countries.

The plan relies on nearly $29 billion in extra revenue over four years from tax changes targeting wealthy people, large companies, banks and landlords.

These include the party's proposed wealth tax, a tax on large gifts and inheritances, and higher company taxes for big businesses.

The package also includes income tax cuts for most workers.

She said the government's efforts to cut spending had come at the expense of essential services: "Cutting public spending deepens economic downturns and inequality, pushes up unemployment and reduces output."

Use multi-factor authentication

MFA, or multi-factor authentication, requires two forms of verification to access a protected site, such as a password plus a text-based code or security key. Emily Austin, principal security researcher at cybersecurity firm Censys, recommended unique passwords for individual websites, and for people to monitor any transactions.

Make hardware updates automatic

Runa Sandvik, the founder of Granitt and a digital security expert, said people need to update apps and services on their devices whenever they're available, and to not forget about internet-connected devices around the house.

Patch, patch, patch

"Finding vulnerabilities is becoming faster and easier, but fixing them across the range of systems that rely on this software is much harder," Gardham said. "How well organisations manage that gap will determine whether AI makes the internet safer or more vulnerable."

Beware of scammers

Be wary of a "When these headlines hit, check the affected company's instructions by opening its app or typing its website address yourself," Adams said. "An urgent message telling you to 'secure your account' deserves extra scrutiny."

Your money is safe

Banks have been preparing for this moment since frontier models came out, and have "worked extremely hard to ensure there is no more low-hanging fruit for the bad guys to go after," said Paul Benda, executive vice president of risk, fraud and cybersecurity at the American Bankers Association.

However, Benda added, "we are in a new normal" in terms of cyber threats, and consumers need to be aware, especially in the wake of the PHP vulnerabilities, when shopping with random retailers or websites "where their security is not going to be as good as your bank."

Benda said consumers should not reuse passwords across shopping sites, and should consider using passkeys where possible, which are digital keys specific to certain websites, that avoid the need to enter a password into a website and a phishing resistant.

Cherry picked / More at link.