Whakaari / White Island: Tour company regularly audited - Minister

The Workplace Relations Minister has confirmed White Island Tours - which took tourists to the island on the day of the eruption - has been regularly audited, as recently as the past few months.

Worksafe is not confirming what audits were done of White Island Tours, the only registered company taking tourists to the island.

Worksafe's chief operating officer would not give details on what audits have been done of White Island Tours, but Iain Lees-Galloway said two surveillance audits had been completed in the past two years.

Yesterday Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said WorkSafe would be reviewing their regulatory framework.

"Did the operators fulfil the expectations around health and safety audits and so on? The question may well be was that regime itself adequate and did WorkSafe do their job?"

Ardern said WorkSafe couldn't look into it themselves and she was looking for more advice on that.

There are two investigations underway: one by police on behalf of the coroner and the other by WorkSafe, as is mandatory when a fatality occurs at a workplace.

WorkSafe chief operating officer Phil Parkes told Morning Report it would investigate whether the regime was fit for purpose.

He said just being on the island didn't qualify as adventure tourism under current regulations.

"The travel to and from the island would have been covered by transport regulations, helicopters will be registered with CAA, boats will be covered by Maritime [NZ]. Depending on what the activity would have been on the island would determine if that was an adventure activity or not," he said.

"There has to be a workplace, paid activity. The operators have to be providing some sort of guiding during that episode.

"If the operator was taking people to the island and providing guided tours then that would be covered by the regulations."

Employers had the obligation to look after their workers and people in their care, he said.

"There's additional layer of regulation which is specific to adventure activities. For those regulators, they have to go on the register and there's a third-party audit company that looks at the safety procedures. WorkSafe doesn't directly audit their activities."

Parkes said only one company, White Island Tours, was on the register at the time of the incident. He would not say what audits have been done of White Island Tours.

He said he could give a general assurance that audits were taking place.

"In general, activities that are on the register have an audit by a third-party auditor. That audit is undertaken every three years and then there are surveillance audits done annually. And WorkSafe provides the standard for those audits."

White Island Tours Ltd in a statement confirmed it was classified as an adventure tourism operator.

"As part of this, our safety procedures are audited to ensure that our Safety Management System complies with the relevant standards.

"The most recent audit was conducted by Adventure Mark (who are accredited by WorkSafe to undertake this task) in August 2019."

Workplace Relations Minister Iain Lees-Galloway said a three-yearly audit was completed in 2017 and two surveillance audits had been completed since.

However, he said there were unanswered questions about the regulator and adventure tourism regulations, and whether everything was done by the book.

"There is a question there about whether or not the adventure activity regulations are fit for purpose and I think it's a question that needs to be answered," he said.

Helicopters 'should have been registered'

The helicopters weren't on the register. There had been ongoing discussions between WorkSafe and the companies. That would form part of the investigation, he said.

"Our position has been for the last two years that there were some operators who were taking trips to the island that should've been registered."

He said differing views on the regulations between the operators and WorkSafe brought discussions to a stalemate.

However, if WorkSafe did feel that a company should be on the register, they would let the operator know, or a penalty could follow, Parkes said.

He wouldn't say why WorkSafe hadn't followed up with the helicopter operators regularly, adding that it was up to the independent investigation of the agency to determine a conclusion.

"I don't want to comment on anything that's going to prejudice our investigation," he said.

"We need to look at who was on the island, what activities were carried out, how they were managing their risks, how all those tour operators work with transport providers - that's a really complex investigation. This is the biggest investigation WorkSafe has done since it's been set up. It's going to take us a number of months to sort through that information."

There was the potential to take legal action so it had be done carefully, he said.

"In general, I can give assurance the adventure activity regime is in place and the audits are taking place."

Finance Minister Grant Robertson told Morning Report more money may be made available to struggling businesses hurt by the Whakaari / White Island eruption.

The government yesterday announced that $5 million to support small businesses in the area, and those on the West Coast who were cut off by flooding last week.

"For businesses in Whakatāne and down the West Coast there's been significant disruption. We'll develop criteria over the coming weeks and have that available in the New Year. If there's a need for more assistance, we'll work towards giving that."

He said it was too soon to say whether a Royal Commission of Inquiry would be resorted to, and that the prime minister was seeking separate advice too.

"We'll look to see if there are any gaps that need to be plugged but for now, we have the WorkSafe inquiry getting underway and the coroner's."

He acknowledged that the funds for businesses wouldn't cover people 100 percent, but would help tide them over.

National's workplace relations spokesperson Todd McClay said government agencies needed time to get on top of exactly what happened.

"I think it's important we allow an inquiry to unfold, National will be supportive in this, and we'll have time to look at exactly what that should be," he said.