Bay of Plenty Times
  • Bay of Plenty Times home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Sport
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Sport

Locations

  • Coromandel & Hauraki
  • Katikati
  • Tauranga
  • Mount Maunganui
  • Pāpāmoa
  • Te Puke
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Thames
  • Tauranga
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Bay of Plenty Times

Whakaari/White Island eruption: Owners appeal conviction

RNZ
28 Oct, 2024 07:46 PM2 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save
    Share this article
Can kiwi bank compete with Aussie banks?, 100,000 Trapped as Israeli Tanks Advance in North Gaza, Westland freedom camping changes, and NZ's lowest-ever Labor weekend road toll.

By RNZ

The owners of Whakaari/White Island are challenging the criminal conviction of their company in the Auckland High Court.

The appeal hearing starts on Tuesday and is set down for three days.

Whakaari Management Limited (WML) and four other companies were fined and ordered to pay more than $10 million in reparations for health and safety failings in the lead-up to the 2019 disaster that killed 22 people.

WML itself was fined $1m and ordered to pay $4.8m in reparations to victims and their families.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Andrew, Peter and James Buttle – who own the island and are the directors of WML – filed the notice of appeal in March.

Whakaari/White Island. Photo / University of Canterbury
Whakaari/White Island. Photo / University of Canterbury

Their lawyer, James Cairney, said the finding that his clients’ company had a safety duty to tourists visiting the island was “inconsistent” with what they thought.

“The fact that there was a duty hangs heavy on the family behind Whakaari Management. It hangs heavy because of the significant implications that there are from imposing a duty on a person essentially akin to a landowner granting rights of access to another person to conduct activities on their land,” he said.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Cairney said his clients felt they were “wrongly charged” and had a right to test that.

In Judge Evangelos Thomas’ decision following the trial last year, he said the company’s failure to get risk assessments exposed others to risk of serious injury and death.

He said WML also consequently failed to install facilities that would mitigate the risk, and failed to ensure workers and tourists were supplied with appropriate personal protective equipment.

During the trial, the court heard WML was earning about $1m a year from charging tour operators an annual licensing fee, as well as a fee for each individual visiting the island.

- RNZ

Sign up to The Daily H, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

Save
    Share this article

Latest from Bay of Plenty Times

Bay of Plenty Times

Rare upside-down stamp sells for $260,000

21 Sep 10:49 PM
Premium
Bay of Plenty Times

Why Lone Star Tauranga's former franchisee went under

21 Sep 08:53 PM
Sport

Wilde unstoppable: Fourth straight T100 triumph after comeback from crash

21 Sep 08:40 PM

Sponsored

Poor sight leaving kids vulnerable

22 Sep 01:23 AM
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Bay of Plenty Times

Rare upside-down stamp sells for $260,000
Bay of Plenty Times

Rare upside-down stamp sells for $260,000

The rare Lake Taupō stamp first cost just four pence when issued in 1903.

21 Sep 10:49 PM
Premium
Premium
Why Lone Star Tauranga's former franchisee went under
Bay of Plenty Times

Why Lone Star Tauranga's former franchisee went under

21 Sep 08:53 PM
Wilde unstoppable: Fourth straight T100 triumph after comeback from crash
Sport

Wilde unstoppable: Fourth straight T100 triumph after comeback from crash

21 Sep 08:40 PM


Poor sight leaving kids vulnerable
Sponsored

Poor sight leaving kids vulnerable

22 Sep 01:23 AM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Bay of Plenty Times e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Bay of Plenty Times
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP