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Speaker 1: Now I am thrilled for the White Island company that

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Speaker 1: had their row conviction cost on appeal Friday. This didn't

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Speaker 1: get the coverage it deserved. White Island and its judicial

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Speaker 1: process has worried me from the get go. If you're

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Speaker 1: a regular, you will know this. Work and Safety appeared

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Speaker 1: to panic in their response to the disaster. It make

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Speaker 1: me no mistake. I mean, what happened at the island

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Speaker 1: was a disaster and a tragedy, but it was a

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Speaker 1: natural disaster and tragedy, and what level of legal recompense

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Speaker 1: was required was questioned to all I thought from the start.

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Speaker 1: But the approach that Work and Safety took appeared to

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Speaker 1: be a panic driven scattergun affair, whereby All and Sundry

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Speaker 1: faced a barrage of charges in the hope that some

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Speaker 1: of the judicial mud would stick. The brothers who owned

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Speaker 1: the island faced a couple of charges. One was dropped,

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Speaker 1: but they were found guilty on the other. They appealed

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Speaker 1: they have had it quite rightly turned over. The company

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Speaker 1: simply gave licenses to conduct twos. They didn't per se

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Speaker 1: manage anything and therefore could not be held accountable for

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Speaker 1: what others did. I still believe a lot of the

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Speaker 1: other charges were overreach as well, given the nature of

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Speaker 1: the volcano, I mean, adventure tourism by its very nature

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Speaker 1: carries risk. A live volcano, by its nature, carries risk.

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Speaker 1: At some point the people who buy into that, as

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Speaker 1: in the visitors, must take some level of responsibility. No one,

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Speaker 1: from what I could see or read, acted recklessly. They

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Speaker 1: weren't crazy. There was no Dare Devil behavior involved. It

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Speaker 1: was an unforeseen disaster, as the judge pointed out, given

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Speaker 1: the island company simply handed out licenses, what was there

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Speaker 1: to manage? He also pointed out, quite rightly, as far

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Speaker 1: as I can see, that they were dealing with basically

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Speaker 1: bare ground, not a lot to manage their either. Many

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Speaker 1: of those charged pled guilty, you might remember early on

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Speaker 1: I am convinced, not because they believed they were guilty,

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Speaker 1: but because it was easy, whether on legal advice or not,

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Speaker 1: too simply cave in and pay the money. This quashing

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Speaker 1: is proof it didn't need to be that way. All

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Speaker 1: the charges that were dropped, and there were lots of them,

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Speaker 1: as proof it didn't need to be that way. So

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Speaker 1: how much damage, stress, money, energy, and failed businesses do

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Speaker 1: we have from an agency that looks increasingly likely set

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Speaker 1: about things in a very haphazard, if not dangerous way,

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Speaker 1: and yet are in no way being held to any

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Speaker 1: level of account. For more from the mic Asking Breakfast

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Speaker 1: listen live to News Talks at B from six am weekdays,

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Speaker 1: or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio