Evidence from the brothers who own Whakaari/White Island continued to be heard in court today, including their response to a key question: "Does Whakaari Management Limited believe they owe a duty to the victims of the eruption of 9 December 2019?"
Today was the third day of evidence from the Buttles at Auckland District Court, in the form of a lengthy audio-only interview from 2020.
The Buttles had been largely unheard from since the 2019 disaster, before this week.
The charges are focused on alleged health and safety failures in the lead up to the fatal 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.
'I don't know how to put it in to words'
Today, the court continued to hear a recording of a WorkSafe interview with the brothers in September 2020.
Towards the end of the recording, one of the WorkSafe investigators asked a direct question.
"Does Whakaari Management Limited believe they owe a duty to the victims of the eruption of 9 December 2019?"
The brothers did not answer "yes" or "no".
Peter Buttle responded: "It's… it's an incredibly hard question to answer because the scale of it was so horrific and it's had such a wide impact on the… on you know, the people that, who died and survivors and their families that it's, it's just, just an unimaginable and to know how to respond to that is just, it's just…
"I don't know how to put it in to words."
Andrew added to his brother's reply.
"I mean it's difficult with investigations," he said. "Coroner investigation, WorkSafe investigation and you know, we're… we're incredibly mindful of the, of the tragedy and its affects. It's impacted us a lot in that regard, I mean…"
Peter spoke again: "Yeah, it's just… there is no way you can respond sensibly to the scale of that disaster."
'It's easy to look in hindsight'
After the recording had finished, a lawyer read out a statement from Peter Buttle.
The statement explained that the brothers' grandfather bought the island in 1936 and it's been in the family ever since.
Peter added that people would ask his grandfather why he'd bought the island.
"He just said 'Oh, I thought it would be nice to own a volcano'.
"Then he passed the island on to my father in 1958," Peter said.
Their father owned it until his death and had a "deep connection" with Whakaari, taking the boys out to visit it.
"In those days you just walked onto the island and walked up the crater without any real awareness of the risk that you were taking."
Later in the statement, Peter said: "What happened was a shock to everybody. It's easy to look in hindsight, and I wish we knew and I wish we had the ability to have a bit of foresight, because what happened was a terrible disaster.
"We believe we had put in place everything that we could possible have put in place to ensure the operators operated safely, and we were very confident in the operators we have that they were extremely safety conscious."
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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