They wanted an open inquest to look at the decisions made by the company directors and the management that “allowed workers to continue working in an unsafe environment”, and other contributing factors in the death, the Coroner said in a note.
“I disagree,” he said.
“The WorkSafe report is substantive and also covers the statements obtained by the eyewitnesses present.”
A coroner cannot look into civil, criminal, or disciplinary liability.
The judge had earlier referred to the “immeasurable” loss for Tomich’s parents and two sisters, who have not been publicly identified.
Ballance was warned in 2015 and again in 2022 by experts about a lack of guards on the belt.
It was also told emergency stops were not good enough; this one was too far away, 20m, surrounded by fertiliser and “not easily accessible”, said a WorkSafe report.
“There was a delay between activation of the [stop button] and the belt coming to a halt.
“Mr Tomich was pinned underneath the [hopper] for some six minutes before the arrival of an ambulance,” the court judgment said in March.
Ballance pleaded guilty to one health and safety charge laid by WorkSafe, and fined $420,000; the maximum is $1.5 million.
The company did not make anyone available to interview and instead referred RNZ to a four-line statement from March, that said this was “a sudden and tragic accident”.
“All who knew Wesley have been immensely impacted by his death.
“We have fully co-operated with WorkSafe NZ during its lengthy investigation and Ballance is committed to recognising the failures and learning from this tragedy wherever we can. We have put additional measures and new training programmes in place to ensure an incident like this does not happen again.”
Ballance is shutting down the manufacturing side of its Mount Maunganui plant with the loss of 60 jobs; it will still store fertiliser and distribute it from there.
“Our manufacturing facilities at the Mount require substantial investment to keep them operating reliably alongside increasing regulatory constraints,” Ballance chief executive Kelvin Wickham said on the firm’s website.
The company had revenue of almost $1 billion in the last financial year; underlying earnings of $38 million minus a write-off related to gas power resulted in a net loss before tax of $49m.
WorkSafe has implored businesses to make sure machines have proper guards, citing Tomich’s and another death of a young timber worker, as a potential “watershed moment for health and safety” among manufacturers.
Two-thirds of the 300 plants WorkSafe checked in March 2025 were ordered to make safety improvements.
Workplace Safety Minister Brooke van Velden has said the Government will simplify the rules on machine guards. A business group said this was overdue, but critics feared the regulations may be diluted.
– RNZ
