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Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Opposition Leader Judith Collins confronted the Parliamentary Press Gallery in parliament ahead of the Labor Party and National Party caucus meetings this morning.
The meetings come after WorkSafe, the government’s workplace health safety regulator, announced that it would press charges for the Whakaari / White Island eruption last December that killed 22 people.
Rob Kitchin / Things
Judith Collins and Jacinda Ardern will meet with their party assemblies this morning.
GNS Science and the National Emergency Management Agency (Civil Defense), both government agencies, have publicly announced that they have been charged, but do not know what the charges are. Tour operators Volcanic Air and White Island Tours, owned by Ngāti Awa, also confirmed yesterday that they had been charged.
Charges have been brought against ten parties and three people in total. The first hearing date is December 15 at the Auckland District Court.
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WorkSafe took nearly a year to file the charges, and top party leaders are expected to speak out on the issue.
Yesterday, the government also announced that it would expand the minimum number of sick days from five to ten by the end of 2021.
This was a Labor electoral compromise of which the National Party was skeptical during the campaign, as it carried additional business costs.
