Judith Collins: Defence Minister says HMNZS Manawanui investigation will be a big job

A raft of questions in the wake of the sinking of our first naval ship in peacetime.

The HMNZS Manawanui went down off the coast of Samoa yesterday, after hitting a reef off the island of Upolu the night before.

The $100 million vessel had been surveying the area.

All 75 people onboard were rescued before the vessel went down. 

Defence Minister Judith Collins told Mike Hosking large quantities of oil were onboard, so they can't be left there.

“We’ve got to find out exactly the depth of the water that it’s in. Divers had been sent out last night, and they’ll be having a look but it’s going to be quite a big job, I think.”

She says we need to get to the bottom of what happened.

“Defence has got its own divers going out to sea, they’ll be other people involved in that, and they have to work as well through the Samoan government.”

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
There's a lot of questions for defense around the sinking

(00:01):
of the monument. Then of course it's the first piece
time loss of a New Zealand vessel. We also have
issues around oil and seepage and all of those sort
of things. Defense Minister. Due to the collins with us
good morning, good morning, made a lot of people text
questions no insurance, I take it, well, there.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Is some insurance, but the details are commercially sensors and
I really can't go into it. And I'm sure everybody
understands who if they have insurance?

Speaker 1 (00:25):
Okay, so some cover there will we have to fork
out for a new ship. And are we forking out
for a new ship.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Well, that's going to have to be decided if it
looks at we look at what the ship does. Bearing
in mind this was bought when I was fifteen years old.
We've been in the North Sea doing work for oil oil.
It was basically an all tender and it's now twenty
years old. So we're just going to work that through.

(00:53):
I think we're doing the defense capability plan at the moment.
We have to factor this into it as to what
capability that we need.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
Yeah, the old defense Capability Plan got talked about over
the seven five sevens. Bet you never thought in a
million years you'd have to deal with a ship that's sunk.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
This is the thing, This is why these are often
something a moving feast. And of course you can only
plan for what you know, and this was certainly not
something that we anticipated and I don't think anyone else
would have either.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
Where are we are we going to extract the ship?
Are we going to leave it for divers? How dangerous
is the oil?

Speaker 2 (01:30):
Well's got a lot of oil on board, It's got
all sorts of things, that's got lubricating oil, hydrug oil,
diesel urear, It's got a lot of stuff in it.
And I don't think we can just sort of leave
it like that. So right at the moment, we've got
to find out exactly what is the depth of the
water that it's in. And there'll be divers. The divers

(01:56):
have been sent up last night and they'll be having
a lot to see what they can. But it's going
to be quite a big job, I think.

Speaker 1 (02:03):
And do you have any indication of how big that
job is, how long the job is, how much that
job costs, and who do we get to do it?

Speaker 2 (02:13):
Well? That is absolutely a million dollar question, isn't it
the defense? That's why a defense has got its own
divers going up to see There'll be other people involved
in that, and they have to work as well through
the some on government because after all, it is actually
some more and we can't just charge in there. But
they were doing everything that we can and will no

(02:36):
doubt have other people brought as out of side defense,
people with very deep sea diving experience and capability.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
I know that this is early days, and I know
there's a process, but you must have some kind of
indication as to what went wrong.

Speaker 2 (02:55):
Not really other than that the ship ended up stuck
on a reef, lost power and ended up stuck on
a reef. We don't know why that happened. We also
don't know you know exactly why that happened, and we
need to find it out. So the Quarter of Inquiry
is something that, unlike say a Royal commission, works very quickly,

(03:19):
and the Chief of Defense Force told me last night
that it could be a matter of weeks into a
few months, but it is something that goes straight to
the heart of what's happened.

Speaker 1 (03:30):
But the weird thing about the hydrography, which is what
the ship did. It maps the floor, It ran into
the floor. It's inexplicable.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
Yes, accept at the reef and accept it lost power.
So that's whether or not. The point is it lost
power and ended up in a reef. That's not quite
the same as just what you've said. So let's just
find out. And I think speculation and natural for everyone
to speculate because everyone wants makes sense of it. But

(04:02):
I think we need to get the facts.

Speaker 1 (04:03):
The lost power, but mechanical or operator era or we
don't have a clue.

Speaker 2 (04:08):
We don't know. We don't know yet, and that's why
there'll be Look, defense are onto this, they're not. They
are a shocking loss for us and peace climate loss,
first time that we've had one, and we need to
get to the bottom of it. This ship is its head,
it's it's quite old, but that's no excuse and we

(04:29):
need to make sure we get to the bottom of it.
And I'm not in any way, shape or form saying
it's the fault of the ship. It's like, let's find
out what the what the facts are.

Speaker 1 (04:38):
Well, good luck with that, Defense Minister Judith Collins. For
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