Karl du Fresne: Whakaari-White Island: the bureaucrats are untouchable

WorkSafe NZ hasn’t exactly emerged covered in glory after its four-month court action over the Whakaari-White Island disaster of 2019. In fact quite the reverse.

In the District Court at Auckland yesterday, Judge Evangelos Thomas found Whakaari Management Ltd (WML) guilty on one health and safety charge.

This was after Worksafe’s case against six other defendants had collapsed, leaving its big prosecution push “hanging by a thread”, in the words of 1News.