Whakaari Management Ltd v WorkSafe New Zealand - [2025] NZHC 288

Successful appeal against conviction under s 48 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 for a breach of s 37. Appellant granted licences permitting certain companies to conduct walking tours on Whakaari White Island, an active volcano that is currently leases. Following an eruption on the Island in 2019, the appellant was convicted of failing to comply with a duty under s 37 of the Health and Safety at Work Act exposing individuals to a risk of death or serious injury/illness. Court found that as a matter of law, the appellant did not manage or control the workplace in which walking tours took place on the Island and therefore did not have a duty under s 37. Court further found that even if the appellant had such a duty, it did not breach that duty as it was not reasonably practicable for it to have undertaken its own risk assessment, or to have carried out the further steps which would have allegedly been identified by such a risk assessment, given the nature of its business and the reasonable reliance it placed on Government agencies and other stakeholders that monitored Whakaari. Appeal allowed. Conviction quashed.