Govt risking lives on Mount Ruapehu, MPs claim

By AUDREY YOUNG, Political Editor


The Government's "political correctness" in refusing to excavate part of Mt Ruapehu's summit is risking lives, Opposition MPs say.

They claim the Government's sensitivity over Maori cultural values is behind its refusal to excavate to prevent a potentially deadly lahar.

But Conservation Minister Chris Carter said doing earthworks at the summit could be highly risky and there were objections from groups other than the local iwi.

Tuwharetoa donated much of the park to the nation.

A lahar, or volcanic mudflow, has been predicted in 18 months to three years, when water in the crater lake rises high enough to break through a 7m-high barrier of material blocking its former outlet.

The Conservation Department has installed an alarm system and an embankment to protect the Tongariro river system, rather than excavating at the crater rim.

National's Nick Smith and Act's Stephen Franks accused the Government of hypocrisy for taking part in the 50th anniversary commemorations of the Tangiwai disaster, in which 151 people died when the crater lake burst and a lahar wiped out a rail bridge.

It was an insult to those who died not to do everything possible to prevent another disaster, Dr Smith said.

"The Government's sensitivity over Maori spiritual values and its aversion to doing earthworks in the National Park has led to the rejection of a common-sense solution to excavate the dam created in the 1996 eruption.

"They are playing Russian roulette with people's lives in the name of political correctness."

Mr Franks urged local authorities to "honour the dead" of Tangiwai by getting a small bulldozer up to the Ruapehu crater rim to prevent another disaster.

"It is no part of respect for the dead or for those who lost them to accept the hypocrisy of any Government crocodile tears at Tangiwai.

"I hope one or more of the local government leaders ignores Labour Government shushing and pressure. I hope they honour the dead, and the living, by doing what every one of those who lost their lives at Tangiwai would have seen as elementary."

The Government had stopped that happening because it accepted a Maori view that altering the summit was culturally unsafe.

Mr Carter said he did not accept the assertion that the decision hinged on Maori cultural values.

The conservation authority and Forest and Bird had also objected.

The warning system was one of a range of permanent measures.

Transit New Zealand was to upgrade the road bridge at Tangiwai by $1 million "which will make the bridge capable of withstanding any lahar that hits it".

Booms attached to the electronic warning system would come down to prevent traffic going on to the bridge and police and civil defence had comprehensive response plans.

"You have to keep in mind there have been 60 lahars in the last 150 years and they will continue to occur," he said.

"What we have taken is a long-term solution to the problem and tried to develop one that lasts forever."

Taking a bulldozer to the crater would expose someone to serious risk and there was no certainty it would work.

"You can never predict what the outcome of playing on the mountain would be.

"On the other hand, we've taken some really comprehensive financial, engineering and investigative steps to provide a long-term solution to the problem."

The electronic system had worked this year to predict small flash floods.