{"id":265397,"date":"2026-02-03T11:00:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T11:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/265397\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T11:00:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T11:00:11","slug":"mount-maunganui-landslide-why-tauranga-city-council-commissioned-external-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/265397\/","title":{"rendered":"Mount Maunganui landslide: Why Tauranga City Council commissioned external review"},"content":{"rendered":"

In an emergency meeting on Monday, the council voted to appoint an external person<\/a> to lead an organisational review of the council\u2019s systems, processes and decision-making leading up to the landslide.<\/p>\n

Drysdale was authorised to appoint the reviewer and approve the terms of reference.<\/p>\n

The external option was chosen over a rapid internal review by a senior council staff member, or doing nothing \u2013 effectively leaving any probe to the Crown and\/or its agencies.<\/p>\n

Councillors spoke of the need for a transparent process that delivered quick answers while addressing its inherent conflict of interest as the operator of the campground.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last thing we want is to see another event of this magnitude that could have been prevented,\u201d Drysdale said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not to say that there is going to be anything, it may be that this is a natural disaster and there wasn\u2019t any action that we could have taken in those moments to change things.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TaurangaTauranga Mayor Mah\u00e9 Drysdale in Monday morning’s emergency council meeting to discuss how the review of the Mauao incident would be approached. Photo \/ Jo Jones<\/p>\n

The council also voted to \u201cstrongly support\u201d an independent Crown inquiry and any other investigation by Crown agencies into the tragedy.<\/p>\n

Council chief executive Marty Grenfell was instructed to provide all requested information to the reviewer and any other inquiries.<\/p>\n

The meeting, the first of the year, heard the councillors had already been discussing draft terms for the review in what Drysdale described to Local Democracy Reporting as their regular informal \u201ccatch-ups\u201d to \u201cgive staff direction\u201d.<\/p>\n

Matua-\u014ct\u016bmoetai ward councillor Glen Crowther expressed the most reluctance about the council diving straight into an external review, and was the sole vote against that part of the resolution.<\/p>\n

He said he believed the tragedy was the \u201csingle most important\u201d issue that had ever been before the council, and the process it took was important.<\/p>\n

Crowther said he was not opposed to an external review, but said the timing could be improved by having staff pull together the facts first, which he said was already happening.<\/p>\n

\"TaurangaTauranga City councillors Kevin Schuler, Glen Crowther and Hautapu Baker at Monday morning’s emergency council meeting. Photo \/ Jo Jones<\/p>\n

He was also concerned that a \u201cpremature judgement\u201d could put staff at risk.<\/p>\n

He referenced comments by former Christchurch Mayor Lianne Dalziel about the need for one joined-up, full and independent inquiry into the Mauao landslide that could effect change \u2013 not multiple inquiries. <\/p>\n

Crowther said the council\u2019s conflict of interest meant its review could not be called independent, unlike a Crown-ordered inquiry.<\/p>\n

P\u0101p\u0101moa ward councillor Steve Morris said the council could not afford to wait for other inquiries, given its responsibility to the almost 170,000 residents of Tauranga.<\/p>\n

\u201cNatural disasters don\u2019t give us the courtesy of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TaurangaTauranga City councillors Rick Curach, Steve Morris and Marten Rozeboom at Monday morning’s emergency council meeting. Photo \/ Jo Jones<\/p>\n

He said an external review was essential to avoid conflict of interest, and a \u201crapid internal review wouldn\u2019t carry the same public confidence\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need facts laid out so we can start giving closure to the families.\u201d<\/p>\n

Te Awanui ward councillor H\u0113mi Rolleston supported an external review, adding, \u201cwe\u2019ve got to move with haste, but we\u2019ve got to move with care\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said there was no script for an event like this, and transparency was vital. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt does need to be external \u2026 we need to make sure we can have confidence in the findings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Te Papa ward councillor Rod Taylor said things could be missed in an internal review.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you work inside an organisation, you often don\u2019t see the wood for the trees \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Deputy mayor and Mauao\/Mount Maunganui ward councillor Jen Scoular said it was important that the council took action and learned from anything the review highlighted to prevent a recurrence.<\/p>\n

\"TaurangaTauranga deputy mayor and Mauao\/Mount Maunganui Ward councillor Jen Scoular<\/p>\n

She said that, as a governor and community member, she wanted to know the facts and the timeline.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important that the external reviewer sets this out so we can start looking at why it happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

The report could feed into other reviews that would follow, she said.<\/p>\n

Drysdale said he wanted someone external appointed who the council could have trust and confidence in. <\/p>\n

The report would \u201cabsolutely be made public\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve tragically lost six lives, and that elevates this to a different level \u2026 I want to be absolutely certain that we understand it fully.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not about rushing it \u2026 but it is very important that we get this information as quickly as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

The review was about establishing the facts, understanding what happened and whether the \u201cactions of Tauranga City Council were appropriate in the circumstances\u201d. <\/p>\n

The council wanted to ensure that if there was anything it could do differently, it learned that as quickly as possible to protect residents\u2019 and visitors\u2019 lives.<\/p>\n

Will there be a Crown inquiry?<\/p>\n

Associate Minister for Emergency Management and Recovery, Chris Penk said Prime Minister Christophe Luxon had tasked him with bringing advice back to Cabinet on the potential scope of a Government inquiry into the Mauao slip.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis work is now underway.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the Government considered there may be a strong case for an independent Government inquiry. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe recognise there are grieving families who want clear answers following this tragic event. <\/p>\n

\u201cI want to assure them that, as I develop advice for Cabinet on the scope of any potential inquiry, this work is being carried out carefully and with urgency.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.<\/p>\n

Ayla Yeoman<\/a> is a Local Democracy Reporting journalist based in Tauranga. She holds a Bachelor of Arts majoring in communications, politics and international relations from the University of Auckland, and has been a journalist since 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In an emergency meeting on Monday, the council voted to appoint an external person to lead an organisational…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":265398,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[13735,9218,12974,2199,44999,124,5205,8473,75445,51592,1866,22263,305,42,296,56662,75444,80560,17707,10934,13233,43,16546,762,312,1227,684,40,38,41,39,12628,6923,4276],"class_list":["post-265397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-actions","tag-before","tag-change","tag-city","tag-commissioned","tag-could","tag-council","tag-done","tag-drysdale","tag-external","tag-find","tag-happened","tag-have","tag-headlines","tag-into","tag-landslide","tag-mah","tag-mauao","tag-maunganui","tag-mayor","tag-mount","tag-news","tag-nothing","tag-review","tag-says","tag-tauranga","tag-there","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-tragedy","tag-what","tag-why"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265397\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}