Jason Walls: Political reporter on the root cause of a New Zealand navy ship sinking in the Pacific

Human error and the failure to disengage an autopilot control has been confirmed as the root cause of a New Zealand navy ship running aground and sinking in the Pacific, a report has concluded.

Political reporter dissects the report. 

"Somebody's human error caused a $100 million problem," he said. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
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Speaker 2 (00:16):
The report has been released into the sinking of the
manawen Nui. Looking through the in depth report is our
political editor Jason Wolves, who joins us once again get
a Jason.

Speaker 3 (00:27):
Oh, good afternoon.

Speaker 4 (00:28):
Boys, Jason. This appears to be a damning report. What
are the basic findings?

Speaker 3 (00:33):
Oh well, I mean, right at the top, human error
and a failure to disengage in auto pilot control has
been confirmed as the root cause of the manawan Nui
running aground and sinking off the coast of the Pacific. Now,
what I'm saying is that somebody accidentally and it was
an accident, of course, but somebody's human error caused a

(00:55):
one hundred million dollar problem. I mean, you've got to
be that person. If you've ever made a mistake in
the workplace, at least feel some sort of level of
gratitude that it wasn't one hundred million dollar mistakes. So
with the press conference is still running, We've just heard
from our Navy rear, Admiral garn Golding, and here's what
he said.

Speaker 5 (01:15):
And so it wasn't a deliberate high grade survey. It
was a rapid environmental assessment, so it does come with
additional complexity, and it did have an operational outcome. It's just,
you know, we are operating in complex environments.

Speaker 3 (01:34):
So that's a bit of an understatement. We are operating
in complex environment And listen, I'm not late. This isn't
a pylon of Yvonne Gray, who is the commander who
was the captain of the Mona when it's sunk. But
still looking at the issue, you must think, come on, guys,
this is just not good enough. Now. Judith Collins was
at the press conference as well, and here's what he said.

Speaker 6 (01:55):
You know, we all know this shouldn't have happened, and
really bad things happen from time to time, and hopefully
it never happens to any other navy as well.

Speaker 3 (02:08):
Yeah, thanks for that, Judis. I also hope it doesn't
happen to any other navy in the world. But listen,
it probably won't happen anywhere else in the world. It's
not one of those sort of only in New Zealand things.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (02:18):
Well, un least she's she allowing us to speculate that
at the time, she's saying speculation isn't healthy. It's fun. Though,
what do we know about Commander Gray's involvement culpability? And
it has that been discussed?

Speaker 3 (02:31):
Well, it would be in the report somewhere in terms
of that, but you'd have to imagine, I mean, she's
not on the hook for the whole one hundred million dollars.
I don't think she has that sitting around. It's hard,
isn't it, because obviously it's a it's a whole different
level of than it is if you crash the company car.
You know, at least they have insurance. I don't know
anybody that's ensuring a hundred million dollar ships up there,

(02:53):
But you know, this is I don't want to speculate
on her future. I mean, there may well be more
to come on what happens with her at the center
of this, But looking at the report, I mean, the
court was satisfied that the direct cause of the grounding
of the ship was a series of human errors witnessed
by witness two and four. So that's obviously gone into

(03:14):
some detail. Talking to some people that were on the
ship as well.

Speaker 4 (03:16):
This statement here I find quite shocking. There was no
one on board, who was qualified enough to carry out
the hydrographic surveying, that the ship was task worth doing it,
and the ship itself was not cleared for the work.
That's what the court has found. So did anyone worship
doing there?

Speaker 1 (03:34):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (03:34):
Yeah, who said go ahead?

Speaker 2 (03:38):
That's a question, right, how high does it go, whether
it is above Commander Gray, and whether that is a
failing across the board from the top right down to
the bottom.

Speaker 4 (03:46):
I mean, there's no doubt that they've cocked up what
they were doing, but the fact that there was no
one qualified to even be doing it in the first
place is quite shocking.

Speaker 3 (03:54):
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, and I guess this is as so
this report has just come out. We'll be going into
detail about these specific issues and will have answers for you.
But just looking at it, I mean those sorts of details,
I mean, a head scratcher probably underplays it quite a lot,
I would say.

Speaker 1 (04:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (04:09):
If anything, Jason, Judith Collins has been talking a lot
about us needing to step up in terms of our
defense beIN in if anything, this report would back what
she is saying that we need to have more resource
and to not just buying these beautiful vessels and planes
and the rest of it, but training our stuff.

Speaker 3 (04:25):
Yeah, and I mean it comes actually fortuitously at the
same time as the government plans on releasing its Defense
Capability Plan, that is the blue print of what it
wants to do in terms of spending across the military
and the defense force for the next decade and a
half or so. So we've been waiting for that for
some time, and we do know that it's going to
contain more cash than it has before. This is bucking

(04:47):
the trend of the rest of what's happening in government
by actually putting more money into a department rather than
taking it out. And no, absolutely this will come up
when Judith Collins is asked about this, because she'll say, well,
look at this, this is the consequences of underfunding. We
have a hundred million dollar problem.

Speaker 4 (05:05):
Yeah, and so they're probably gonna have to uplif funding
by at least as much as it costs to buy
a new ship one hundred million or so, and however
many millions it took around the salvage, so that eats.

Speaker 3 (05:17):
And to make the report as well. I mean, it's
not cheap.

Speaker 4 (05:20):
Hey, thank you so much Jason for coming on at
short notice, appreciate it, no no problem.

Speaker 1 (05:25):
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