The brothers who own Whakaari / White Island "were happy" that GNS Science and tour operators kept them informed about risks on the island, Auckland District Court today heard today as part of an ongoing trial.
The Buttles have been largely unheard from since the 2019 disaster.
The charges are focused on alleged health and safety failures in the lead up to the fatal December 9, 2019 eruption, which killed 22 people and left 25 others with serious injuries. They come under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015.
The charges are being brought by WorkSafe and none of them are to do with the eruption itself or the events that followed.
Andrew, James and Peter Buttle are the directors of Whakaari Management Limited, which owns the island.
Their grandfather bought the island in 1936 and it's been in the family ever since.
The audio-only interview heard in court today took place in September 2020.
A number of tour operators held licence agreements with Whakaari Management Ltd at the time of the eruption.
'You never knew from one day to the next'
Peter Buttle said the family has had a "long, involved relationship" with GNS Science and its predecessors.
"Over that period of time, GNS have provided us with a considerable amount of information about the status of the island, what the risks were on the island, that their views were in terms of what those risks were," he said.
Peter said the island was a "changing environment".
"You never knew from one day to the next essentially what the status of the island was," he said. "I would say we had a pretty sound knowledge, institutional knowledge if you like, taking into Whakaari Management Limited from our work with [GNS] over 40-50 years.
"We did have an understanding of what those risks were."
He said: "GNS relied on their monitoring equipment but they also relied on observations from the operators."
Asked about Peter's comments on the island's volatility, Andrew said the situation was "unique".
"It's an island off the coast, and there's no permanent resident there," he said.
"We all reside in Auckland, so there was nothing on a day-to-day basis we could really contribute as far as analysing [activity]."
Peter said helicopters would do a flyover to check the island before landing, and White Island Tours — which operated boat tours to the island — would "typically send someone up the crater just to make sure that the environment was safe on that day".
Brad Scott, a GNS volcanologist, would "sometimes" call them directly to discuss the island.
"I am sure that if there was something that Brad thought we should know about the island, he would have called us without hesitation."
GNS communicated with the tour operators on almost a daily basis, Peter added.
“"We did have an understanding of what those risks were"
"We were happy that they had a really good relationship with us, that they kept us informed," he said.
"They were our conduit if you like to the information about what was and wasn't safe around the island... If GNS thought that not enough was being done, we would be confident they would most likely have contacted us to say that they were unhappy about it."
He stressed that the brothers were "not volcanic experts".
"It was very much a two-way street if you like between GNS and the operators and how they managed the island on a day-to-day basis."
Asked if Whakaari Management had ever restricted access to the island because it was unsafe, Peter said: "Not prior to the tragedy."
The brothers also "relied on" Emergency Management Bay of Plenty "to have plans that were effective and operational", he later added.
Andrew read from a document, quoting: "The BOP CDEM (Civil Defence Emergency Management) Group is responsible for managing the hazard and risk associated with Whakaari / White Island."
Later in the interview, Peter said: "In specifics to White Island and actions taken with respect to White Island, we seem to be down the pecking order in terms of who they'll contact and how we'll be involved in any decision making."
"It's not that weren't included, it's just that it always seemed that we were the last in the line of questioning if you like."
The brothers were "affected deeply" by the tragedy, he added.
"The enormity of it was just unimaginable."
The case in brief
Whakaari Management Limited and its directors Andrew, James and Peter Buttle, as well as ID Tours New Zealand Limited and Tauranga Tourism Services Limited, are the defendants in the ongoing judge-only trial.
Thirteen defendants were originally charged, nearly a year after the eruption.
NEMA had its charges dismissed in March, and was awarded costs of $40,000.
Inflite Charters, GNS Science, White Island Tours, Volcanic Air Safaris Limited, Aerius Limited and Kahu New Zealand Limited have entered guilty pleas. Inflite was ordered to pay $267,500 while the others are yet to be sentenced.
Volcanic Air Safaris pleaded guilty to two charges and faces a maximum charge of $1.5 million for each charge.
Aerius pleaded guilty to two charges and faces a maximum fine of $500,000 for each charge.
Kahu NZ pleaded guilty to two charges and faces a maximum fine of $500,000 for each charge.
In addition, WorkSafe itself was the subject of an independent review relating to the island's eruption. That 2021 review found the regulator "fell short of good practice in its regulation of activities on Whakaari White Island over the 2014-19 period".
The trial continues.
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