A charge alleging the country's national emergency agency was accountable for failing to protect tourists and tourism operators from the risk of a volcanic eruption on Whakaari has been dismissed.
WorkSafe NZ had charged the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) following the 2019 disaster, accusing it of failing to take measures to protect tourists and tourism operators from the risk of death or serious injury.
But at the Auckland District Court today, Judge Evangelos Thomas said the section of the act, that these charges had been brought under, was not intended to be used in such a way.
He says section 36 (2) of the Work Safe Act 2015 was designed for just that - "work means work".
"NEMA did not carry out any work physically on Whakaari. It did not send any workers to Whakaari. It never placed any person on Whakaari."
The judge acknowledged there was reference to "other persons" being safe from harm in the act, but says it was unlikely that was intended to mean those outside of workers and the workplace.
He said expanding it beyond that would have been "significant and controversial" and would have had vast implications.
NEMA was one of 13 organisations and individuals charged with failing in their duty to ensure the safety of tourists on Whakaari/White Island between April 4, 2016 and December 10, 2019.
Twenty-two people were killed in the eruption and a further 25 injured, many with third-degree burns.
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