![\"Tauranga](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/tauranga-city-council-is-responding-to-several-reviews-and-i-4HMILOF2HZBM3OQ42N46WMY4SE.jpg\")
<\/p>\nTauranga City Council has hired four legal firms as it responds to several formal inquiries into the deadly Mauao landslide.<\/p>\n
By Ayla Yeoman of Local Democracy Reporting <\/p>\n
The January 22 slip claimed the lives of six holidaymakers when it hit the Mount Maunganui Beachside Holiday Park. It also damaged the Mount Hot Pools.<\/p>\n
The council owned and ran the campground, while the pools were run by council-controlled operation Bay Venues, which has engaged its own external legal advice after the slip.<\/p>\n
Several inquiries have been opened into the landslide, including by the Coroner, NZ Police, WorkSafe NZ, central Government and the Council.<\/p>\n
The council has also published hundreds of documents on a dedicated Mauao landslide website in response to slip-related requests under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act (LGOIMA).<\/p>\n
It said this was part of its commitment to providing transparent and accessible information to the community.<\/p>\n
Last week, Local Democracy Reporting asked the council which legal firms it was using in its response to these processes, and why it needed multiple firms.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Tauranga City Council is responding to several reviews and inquiries into the January 22 slip. (Source: Local Democracy Reporting)<\/p>\n
The council referred the request to go through a formal LGOIMA process, before providing the information via its communications team the next day.<\/p>\n
The council said it had engaged Meredith Connell, Cooney Lees Morgan, and Holland Beckett Law \u201cto support work relating to the Mauao slip\u201d.<\/p>\n
Auckland-based Meredith Connell specialises in public interest law. The other two firms are local to Tauranga.<\/p>\n
The council said a fourth firm, Auckland-headquartered Molloy Batts, and the two local firms were providing independent legal advice to council staff involved in the formal processes.<\/p>\n
Meredith Connell was helping review and collate documents for the formal inquiries and reviews, and for LGOIMA requests.<\/p>\n
More than 100,000 potentially relevant documents were initially identified following the slip, the council said.<\/p>\n
An \u201cextraordinary\u201d volume of potentially relevant material had to be identified, preserved, reviewed and, \u201cwhere appropriate\u201d, released to the public or provided to regulators as part of the formal legal processes.<\/p>\n
![\"More](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/more-than-40-slips-hit-tracks-on-mauao-in-the-january-storm-Z4MNFQA2CJA7ZEZI6D3G4A4HHA.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
More than 40 slips hit tracks on Mauao in the January storm. (Source: Local Democracy Reporting)<\/p>\n
The council said all documents released publicly went through a structured legal review process before publication to ensure the council did not disclose irrelevant, confidential or legally privileged documents, breach privacy or compromise ongoing formal reviews and inquiries.<\/p>\n
Documents were collected into a central repository and reviewed by lawyers to assess relevance and any withholding grounds under the LGOIMA, such as legal privilege, privacy issues and risks to ongoing investigations.<\/p>\n
Many of the publicly released documents, which range from natural hazard records to meeting minutes, have redactions.<\/p>\n
\u201cManaging work of this scale is well beyond what an in-house legal team can reasonably absorb alongside business-as-usual responsibilities,\u201d the council said.<\/p>\n
Meredith Connell was engaged because it had the capacity, systems and experience to run a large-scale, event-specific legal response. The other firms were engaged to give staff independent advice.<\/p>\n
In a meeting on Tuesday last week, the council retrospectively approved the spending of $500,000 on legal and professional services to date, with a further $850,000 expected over the remainder of the financial year to June.<\/p>\n
Legal and technical support costs were expected to run to $2m in the following year.<\/p>\n
![\"Security,](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/security-welfare-response-and-public-safety-tasks-were-among-W6RXLTE5KVB3ZHY52AF3UJI7GI.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Security, welfare response and public safety tasks were among costs incurred by Tauranga City Council in early days of the Mauao slip response. (Source: Local Democracy Reporting)<\/p>\n
A council report said a \u201csignificant amount\u201d of the forecast spending was for \u201clegal review of past documentation, technical information, interviews and ongoing legal advice\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis work will meet the requirements of the various reviews as well as supporting [Tauranga City Council] future decisions and organisation.\u201d<\/p>\n
The council was exploring options to help cover the costs, including insurance and tapping into its risk reserve, which had $5m as of mid-2025.<\/p>\n
The forecast also included a \u201cplaceholder\u201d $6 million budget for capital spending.<\/p>\n
The council confirmed to Local Democracy Reporting the $6m was a provisional budget set aside for restoring Mauao, associated tracks and slip-affected facilities the council may choose to reopen.<\/p>\n
The hot pools, campground and Pilot Bay boat ramp remain closed, along with Mauao. About 42 landslides hit the maunga\u2019s popular walking tracks.<\/p>\n
The council said the $6m was an initial estimate as it was too soon to say how much funding would be needed. Assessments and engineering work were ongoing.<\/p>\n
Bay Venues chief executive Chad Hooker said the organisation had also sought legal advice as part of its response after the slip.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have sought limited, one-off advice from legal counsel Tompkins Wake at a minimal cost to ensure we are taking an appropriate and considered approach.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bay Venues was also reviewing its systems and processes to identify opportunities for improvement, supported by an external health and safety specialist.<\/p>\n
It was working with an insurer, broker and the council, which was leading the insurance response, Hooker said.<\/p>\n
The council has said it expects the review it commissioned, led by Paul Davison, KC, to be complete by mid-year. The results will be released to the community.<\/p>\n
The Government\u2019s inquiry was expected to deliver a final report by December 3. Its scope also includes the landslide into a Welcome Bay Rd property that killed a grandmother and grandson early on January 22.<\/p>\n
WorkSafe\u2019s review, announced in February, was expected to take a full year.<\/p>\n
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.<\/p>\n
The morning’s headlines in 90 seconds, including police keeping a watch on fuel related crime, and how do you steal 400,000 KitKats? (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tauranga City Council has hired four legal firms as it responds to several formal inquiries into the deadly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356231,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1242,111,43,139,69,1756],"class_list":{"0":"post-356230","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-natural-disasters","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz","13":"tag-tauranga-bay-of-plenty"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356230","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=356230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356230\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}