Whakaari/White Island trial: WorkSafe, Whakaari Management at odds over duties of land-owners

By RNZ

WorkSafe has told a court that the company managing Whakaari/White Island should have questioned if it was safe for tourists to visit the volcanic island.

Its prosecutor, Kristy McDonald KC, gave her closing arguments at the Auckland District Court yesterday, in a trial over health and safety failings in the lead-up to the 2019 eruption that killed 22 people.

WorkSafe’s case is that the island’s owners, through the company Whakaari Management, put profits ahead of safety.

McDonald said Whakaari Management Limited (WML) had duties, as managers of the island, that it failed to uphold.

“WML should have sought the answers to two fundamental questions: Is this business safe, and if not, can it be made safe?”

McDonald said WML failed to consult, coordinate, and cooperate on the risks posed to the tourists and workers on the island.

She said the company should have conducted risk assessments before it even considered bringing people onto Whakaari.

“In my submission and in our submission, sir, it wasn’t appropriate to commence the business,” McDonald said.

“And then, as WML seems to have done, seek to rely on intermittent and informal conversations, or meetings, with other stakeholders to understand the highly dynamic risk of its business.”

McDonald said it appeared WML’s position was that it did not owe any duties under the Health and Safety at Work Act in respect of Whakaari, to tourists or to anyone else.

Whakaari Management denies the charges.

The company is the only defendant left in the trial, which started in July.

Of the 13 companies and individuals charged in 2020, six have had their charges dismissed and six have pleaded guilty.

McDonald argued WML was the active manager of the island, and had duties towards those visiting the active volcano.

“WML is not a passive landlord that did no more than let the operators use its land,” McDonald said.

“It was an active land manager.”

McDonald said WML was the only company that had influence and control over the total risk of visiting the island.

“If WML was not assessing and managing this risk, no one was, and in fact no one did, and in my submission that should not be overlooked.”

McDonald said WML, like any other business, needed to understand the risks of operating its business, something WorkSafe found it did not do.

Beginning his closing statement, Whakaari Management’s lawyer James Cairney gave reasons why Judge Evangelos Thomas should find WML not guilty.

“This duty does not and has never extended to require of a land-owner what WorkSafe says is required of [WML], or for that matter, any land-owner granting rights of access to hazardous land.”

Cairney said Whakaari Management Ltd met, and went further than, the duty requirements.

He is expected to continue his closing remarks today.