Garin Golding: Chief of Navy on the sinking of the HMNZS Manawanui

Moves have been made by the Chief of Navy to shut down speculation about the loss of the Manawanui. 

The $100 million naval vessel was surveying the area off Samoa's coast on Saturday, when it hit a reef and sank the following day.  

Most of the 75 rescued crew members have returned to New Zealand, with the final few flying back today.  

Divers are heading out to the site today to assess the depth, the condition of the ship, and any presence of oil.  

Rear Admiral Garin Golding told Mike Hosking a Court of Inquiry's being set up to understand the facts, and speculation is unhelpful.  

He says they will do a number of interviews to get to the bottom of what went on, and in time, exactly what happened will be released. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So we have more detail on our insurance question. We
raised with the Defense Ministry yesterday the monument that we
had third party which will to some degree help cover
the clean up costs apparently, so not exactly replacement insurance.
So where are we at The Chief of maybe rahere,
Admiral Garren Golding is with us. Very good morning to you, yeah,
coome morning Mike. Just from a personal point of view,
when you got the news, could you believe what was happening?

Speaker 2 (00:21):
It's pretty devastating news. It's a bad day in our navy,
but one that's not going to define us.

Speaker 1 (00:27):
But literally when the phone rang, which I assume that
you must have thought what I mean, you can never
have thought that you would ever hear those words.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
Look, well, when I got the phone, it was all
about priority as the safety and well being of the crew.
That was at the forefront of my mind. Fair enough,
and being there last night when they arrived back and
he's yelling with the Prime Minister and Minister's penk and Collins.
It was good to be there at and present to
welcome them back to vent quite through quite an ordeal.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
Right as far as the divers the assessment that time
frame the job, the cost. Where are we at with that?

Speaker 2 (01:03):
So at first light this morning, subject to favorable whether
the diver is going to head out to the site.
They've got a remotely operated vehicle which they'll send down
as well as do a number of dives. Their primary
purposes to assess the depth, the condition of the ship
and any presence of oil coming out of the vessel.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
Beyond that, you've got no idea as to cost, time frame,
any of that.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
No that the key focus for us is supporting the
smow and government, so we've got a number of lines
of effort. As I mentioned, the diving will be conducted.
Also have Maritime New Zealand experts with the light spilkit
and some environmental wildlife experts. They will be supporting the
government authorities with the cleanup and spill activities. We've also

(01:52):
got a Rural Navy ship Tamar, which is nearby. They
have a spilkit on board. Unfortunately they have been unable
to deploy that due to the web but hopefully if
the weather permits, they'll get that out today and then
we've got a heavy spilkit from Maritime New Zealand that
we're loading onto Canbury and that will deploy tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
Who makes decisions? Are you in charge or are the
Simons in charge?

Speaker 2 (02:13):
It's a Samoan lead. We will provide support to them
and it's a cross agency response from a New Zealand perspective.

Speaker 1 (02:22):
You got any clues as to what went wrong, that's.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
The important part of it is not to do any speculation.
So we've got a Court of Inquiry team that we
are standing up. We're just close to finalizing that composition
and the terms of reference, making sure that the inquiry
covers the lead up, the event itself and also posts
so we can learn the lessons and not a repeat

(02:48):
event like this.

Speaker 1 (02:48):
But what's the vibe? I mean, you must have a
hunch as to or you must have heard as to
what they think happened.

Speaker 2 (02:56):
Again, my speculating is not what we want to do.
We need to understand the facts and that's the whole
reason we're setting up the Court of Inquiry and they
will do a number of interviews, get to the bottom
of what went on and in time we'll release that.

Speaker 1 (03:12):
What's your role with the Minister in an assessment of
a replacement? Do you have any say at all? Or not?

Speaker 2 (03:17):
Really, that's up to the government to decide that as
part of our defense capability plan, and that is going
being presented to them in the coming months.

Speaker 1 (03:27):
All right, appreciate time very much, Garren Golding, who is
a rear admill head of the Navy. For more from
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