WorkSafe visit two months before island eruption
WorkSafe sent one of its safety experts to visit Whakaari/White Island Tours just months before the eruption that has now killed 19 people.
The individual was from WorkSafe’s Maruiti/Safe Haven team, which was set up in a bid to reduce the disproportionate impact of workplace safety failures on Ma¯ ori workers.
WorkSafe would not comment on why it sent a safety expert to visit Nga¯ti Awa-owned White Island Tours but confirmed the visit had happened.
There were 47 people on Whakaari/White Island when it erupted on December 9, and WorkSafe has begun an investigation that could take a year to complete, though others, including Opposition leader Simon Bridges, believe an independent inquiry is inevitable.
WorkSafe is the country’s workplace safety regulator and is in charge of administering the adventure tourism regulations, which require companies such as White Island Tours to be safety audited at least once every three years. The safety audits, which are provided to WorkSafe but are not published for the public to read, are conducted by certified private adventure tourism auditing companies.
The Maruiti team member’s visit to White Island Tours – about 12 weeks ago, according to a tip-off to – which included a trip out to the island, would form part of WorkSafe’s investigation, a spokeswoman for WorkSafe said.
‘‘Elements of that visit will contribute to our investigation,’’ she said. ‘‘So I cannot provide you with any details.’’
The source who revealed the WorkSafe visit said: ‘‘A Government health and safety inspector was recently on the island and this gave everyone the impression the operation was safe. He did not raise a single concern.
Nga¯ ti Awa stated he was there to look over their current safety systems and see if they provided for projected growth and expansion – getting more tourists to the island,’’ the source said.
He went through the safety procedures before he joined a tour, the source said.
A few days after the WorkSafe safety expert’s visit, staff raised concerns in a meeting with managers over the physical capabilities of some of the tourists visiting the island, the source said.
‘‘The answer was ‘WorkSafe approves the independent audit’ and sent the inspector to check everything. There was a strong sense that everything was safe and sound – even the idea of increasing numbers.’’
The source said the WorkSafe employee said he was a specialist in farming and construction, not adventure tourism.
‘‘WorkSafe are acting like they never went there and only approved the tourism operation on paper. Maybe they should now be explaining to everyone what the inspector was doing there?
‘‘What did he check and approve? I am not blaming him but why haven’t WorkSafe admitted he was there?’’
WorkSafe’s regulation of White Island tourism is already in the spotlight following revelations it told helicopter tour companies taking tourists to the island that they needed to be audited and registered but had failed to make them do it.
In 2014, then-prime minister John Key warned adventure tourism companies that failed to register what they could expect from WorkSafe.
‘‘There is a big $2000 fine that applies on a daily basis and we will expect them [WorkSafe] to keep fining people, because it will be extremely messy for all of us if there is a death with an operator who is not certified,’’ Key said.
The adventure tourism regulations were brought in following 37 tourist deaths in the four years before 2009. These, coupled with a heartfelt plea from a bereaved British father, prompted Key to initiate an overhaul of adventure tourism safety.
WorkSafe’s Maruiti team is part of WorkSafe’s strategy to bring down workplace injury and death rates among Ma¯ ori workers to be equal or lower than that of non-Ma¯ ori workers.
When the Maruiti unit was formed, Ma¯ori workers were 29 per cent more likely to be maimed or killed at work than non-Ma¯ ori workers.