The minister responsible for WorkSafe, which has just charged 13 organisations and individuals over last year's Whakaari/White Island disaster, says there wasn't any one person or authority that could have stopped that day's ill-fated tour.
Forty-seven people were on the island when it erupted on December 9, 2019. In the 12 months since, 22 have died - the latest succumbing to his injuries just last week.
Though the accused weren't named by WorkSafe, a number of them went public - including White Island Tours itself, which has been charged with two breaches of the Health and Safety at Work Act.
Others facing charges include Government agencies GNS Science - which raised Whakaari's Volcanic Alert Level just weeks before the eruption - and the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA, formerly Civil Defence), as well as private company Volcanic Air - a scenic helicopter and floatplane airline.
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Michael Wood told The AM Show on Tuesday morning the judicial process will determine who had ultimate responsibility for the tragic events of that day.
"WorkSafe has spent a year with 28 people dedicated to an investigation into this issue. We've now got a judicial process and that's about how we get accountability and how we get facts on the table."
Wood said he has written to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), which has oversight WorkSafe, for verification the independent regulator is "fulfilling their responsibilities".
"WorkSafe is the independent health and safety regulator. They're the agency that investigates these kinds of events, and as we've seen in this case, has come to the view there should be prosecutions."
Wood repeatedly refused to comment on the appropriateness of the charges or who's to blame for the tragedy, saying it was for the courts to decide.
"That's how we find out where accountability should lie. You'll forgive me for not wanting to come on top of that and apply a political layer on top of what the judicial process quite rightfully is set up to determine."
While there are "inherent risks" in adventure tourism, Wood said law changes "five or six years ago after other incidents" had resulted in fewer deaths and injuries overall. He's expecting the findings of a review shortly, after which new regulations might be put in place.
"If there are gaps that need plugging, then we will plug them."
GNS Science raised the Volcanic Alert Level from one - minor volcanic unrest - to two - moderate to heightened volcanic unrest - at Whakaari just three weeks before the eruption. In a statement it said it was unclear of the nature of the charges it was facing. Despite its warnings, it has no power to stop tours from happening.
"That's often how systems work," said Wood. "Often there isn't solely one person who has a role in ensuring health and safety in any particular given situation. If you think about a building site for example, you'll have a head contractor, you'll have subcontractors, you'll have a foreman... those people need to work together to ensure the health and safety of people in that workplace are looked after.
"That's they way our system is set up, and that's what this process will work through to determine where responsibility lays and if anyone breached their duties."
Shane Cronin, a professor of volcanology at the University of Auckland, said volcanoes are "dangerous and unpredictable" - particularly Whakaari.
"Looking back, there are questions as to whether the generic Volcanic Alert Level System was appropriate for a volcano such as Whakaari, which has much more rapid changes in eruption state than most of our other volcanoes and produces explosions with very little warning," he said.
"I hope that whatever comes of these charges, that we have a stronger and more open science communication framework for volcanoes and their hazards. The worst possible outcome, would be if volcano science agencies such as GNS Science, or individual volcano scientists become too timid to make public statements on volcanic activity for fear of being wrong, or of being prosecuted.
He said even "with all the knowledge in the world, we as scientists will never truly be able to recognise every sign of impending eruption, nor forecast every event".
WorkSafe visited Whakaari just two months before the eruption. Wood said he was yet to be briefed on that visit, and has asked MBIE for more information.
The first court hearing is scheduled for December 15. The anniversary on December 9 will be marked with a public memorial at the Mataatua Reserve in Whakatāne.
