Taxpayers still picking up the pieces for Rena disaster

The Government’s decision to prosecute the Rena’s owners is the latest move in a series of piece-meal efforts to make amends for its inadequate response to the grounding of the Rena, Labour’s Environment spokesperson Grant Robertson says.

“The latest flurry of activity cannot compensate for the Government’s failure to move on international changes in the liabilities, as was recommended as long ago as 2008.

“That failure - despite charges under both the Resource Management Act and the potential liability under the Maritime Transport Act - leaves taxpayers at least $13 million out of pocket,” Grant Robertson said.

“Here we have a Government that ignored all the advice on how it could cover itself for exactly this sort of disaster – as other countries were doing at the time – now trying to claw back what really amounts to just a drop in the bucket.

"While the true cost of this disaster may never be known, the cost of the clean-up so far is estimated to be around $27.5 million.

“If, as was recommended by officials four years ago, the Government had signed up to the International Convention on Civil Liability for Bunker Oil Pollution Damage and the changes to the Convention on Limitation of Liability for Maritime Claims, taxpayers wouldn’t now be forking out for its incompetency,” Grant Robertson said.