The country may not be able to handle a Royal Commission into the Whakaari/White Island eruption, according to the minister in charge, Tracey Martin.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says there will be an inquiry into the tragedy at Whakaari/White Island, however Internal Affairs Minister Tracey Martin says no decisions have been made about what form that will take.
"At this stage I haven't had any conversation with anybody in Government about there needing to be an inquiry or whether there should be an inquiry," she told Newshub.
"At this stage everybody's concentrating on making sure that the survivors are alright making sure that the emergency services are doing what they need to do"
There are three types of inquiry available to the Government: A Government or Ministerial inquiry, a public inquiry or a Royal Commission.
Royal Commissions are undertaken in the most serious matters of public interest. Currently there are two running, one into abuse in state care and the other into the Christchurch terror attack.
But Martin has raised fears that New Zealand may not have the capacity to hold another Royal Commission right now.
"We've never had as many Royal Commissions going as we have right now so another one I think we'd be very hard-pressed to make sure that we had that calibre of individual we needed to lead it."
The Minister says usually Royal Commissions are lead by a judge or retired judge, whereas a Government or public inquiry may be more manageable in terms of finding someone to lead it.
"We certainly have the calibre of New Zealanders that could do an inquiry like that."
Ardern told The AM Show on Tuesday there will "absolutely" be some form of inquiry.
"I won't define what the nature of that will be all there is to say is obviously questions will need to be answered."
But Martin says capacity will not necessarily be the determining factor on what form any inquiry will take.
"What we need to take into account is what is the appropriate level. If we're talking about this a lot of it is in the public domain - we're talking about everyday actions, were the warning signs headed appropriately etcetera," Martin said.
"I would've thought that a ministerial inquiry or a public inquiry would be adequate.
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters said any concerns about the pace that emergency services reached the island will be "part and parcel of the future investigation".
"Those aspects will not be covered over, not be hidden, we'll get to the bottom of it at the time when we properly can," he told Newshub.
