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Floral tribute to victims of Mount Maunganui landslide [Photo: Facebook\/Tauranga Community]<\/p>\nA damning review into the January 22, 2026 landslide disaster at Mount Maunganui in Tauranga, New Zealand, which killed six people at a council-owned campground, has confirmed that the tragedy was \u201cpreventable.\u201d For decades, repeated warnings that the site was unsafe were ignored.<\/p>\n
The 268-page report, released on August 19, was prepared by retired High Court Judge Paul Davison KC for Tauranga City Council (TCC), which owns and operates the Beachside Holiday Park.<\/p>\n
Just before 9:30 a.m. on January 22, following extremely heavy rainfall, a large section of the south-eastern slope of Mount Maunganui collapsed onto the campground, smashing into tents, caravans and an amenities building.<\/p>\n
Floral tribute to victims of Mount Maunganui landslide [Photo: Facebook\/Tauranga Community]<\/p>\n
Those killed were Lisa Maclennan, 50, a literacy tutor at Morrinsville Intermediate School; friends Susan Knowles and Jacqualine Wheeler, both 71; Swedish tourist M\u00e5ns Bernhardsson, 20; and 15-year-olds Sharon Maccanico and Max Furse-Kee, students at Pak\u016branga College in Auckland.<\/p>\n
The Davison report confirms what was clear soon after the landslide: the deaths were not simply due to an unavoidable natural disaster. On January 27, the WSWS noted<\/a> that questions were already being \u201craised about why the campground was not evacuated despite several warnings well before the deadly landslide.\u201d<\/p>\n Davison\u2019s central conclusion is devastating: \u201cThis was not a hazard that was unknown, hidden, or beyond the reach of foresight. For more than two decades, one competent consultant after another identified the landslide hazard to the campground, located it on the very slope that failed,\u201d and warned of the potential consequences.<\/p>\n \u201cAs long ago as 1999, Dr Laurie Richards [a rock engineering consultant] warned that the siting of fragile holiday accommodation directly beneath these slopes was imprudent and that the risk to sleeping occupants was high. In 2006 [consulting firm] Avalon went further, estimating in plain numbers that a debris flow of the kind that had happened before would place some thirty people in its path and kill twenty-one.\u201d<\/p>\n A \u201cTrigger Action Response Plan\u201d (TARP), recommended by geotechnical consultants in 2023 and again in 2025, would have set out the conditions under which an urgent evacuation of the campsite should be ordered. The TARP was never implemented.<\/p>\n \u201cThe knowledge was there,\u201d Davison writes. \u201cThe means of reducing the risk of a landslide tragedy occurring was identified, available, and relatively inexpensive to implement.\u201d<\/p>\n The review condemned the fact that \u201cNo single person within the TCC organisation \u2018owned\u2019\u201d the risk. Successive restructures of the council dispersed institutional knowledge, while recommended safety measures \u201cwere scoped out or simply not actioned.\u201d The result was \u201ca system that enabled an identified risk to life to remain unowned, un-escalated and unmanaged.\u201d<\/p>\n Davison concluded unequivocally that the tragedy was \u201cpreventable.\u201d He wrote: \u201cHad a TARP been in place, evacuation would likely have occurred well prior to the fatal landslide and the tragic loss of life that occurred would in all likelihood have been averted.\u201d<\/p>\n On the day of the landslide, Maclennan, who was subsequently killed, woke other campers at about 5 a.m. after noticing instability on the hillside. She and her partner attempted to contact the campground\u2019s after-hours number, without success. Council staff arrived at the site shortly before 7:00 a.m. to inspect conditions, but no evacuation order was given.<\/p>\n Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) received a call from a local resident concerning an earlier landslide at 5:48 a.m. and informed the council. A camper also called the police around 6:30 a.m.\u00a0<\/p>\n At 8:56 a.m., walking tracks on the mountain were closed by the council because of landslides. The campground remained occupied. More than half an hour later the deadly landslide struck.<\/p>\n Davison\u2019s review was commissioned by the TCC and its terms of reference excluded making any recommendations about \u201ccivil, criminal or disciplinary liability of any person.\u201d<\/p>\n TCC chief executive Marty Grenfell, who has been in the role for eight years, apologised on behalf of the council, telling the media: \u201cWe failed to manage the risks appropriately in relation to the campground. We need to address that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Speaking to Radio NZ (RNZ) on August 19, Grenfell said the reports warning about landslide risks \u201cwere never escalated to a point where anybody at a senior level within the organisation could provide guidance, direction, and ensure that they were appropriately managed.\u201d<\/p>\n RNZ noted that TCC\u2019s own website shows that a June 2025 geohazard report was included as an agenda item that August. RNZ reported that the meeting was \u201ccancelled because of concerns about the number of councillors able to attend\u201d and it is not clear why the meeting was not rescheduled.<\/p>\n Tauranga Mayor Mah\u00e9 Drysdale rejected calls from local residents for Grenfell to resign. He offered apologies to the victims\u2019 families and declared to the media: \u201cOur organisation should have done better.\u201d<\/p>\n The invocation of \u201csystemic failure\u201d is being used to obscure rather than establish individual and political responsibility. If everyone is supposedly part of a defective \u201csystem,\u201d then no senior official is held responsible for ensuring that the system protects human life.<\/p>\n Investigations by police, the workplace health and safety regulator WorkSafe, the coroner and a separate government inquiry are ongoing. The National Party-led government, however, has given no indication that anyone will be held accountable.<\/p>\n Opposition Labour Party leader Chris Hipkins told the New Zealand Herald that the government and councils had to act \u201cimmediately\u201d to prevent future disasters. \u201cToo often, after disasters, we hear promises that lessons will be learned. The real test is whether governments and councils actually act on those lessons,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Questions about this article? Ask Socialism AI<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1787801537_203_00320551-90b5-4662-8c01-4280f38c1388.png\"\/)
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