Judge Evangelos Thomas says any reparation will depend on the funds available - which will be known next month. Photo: RNZ / Nick Monro
A court has been told there will not be enough money to properly compensate the survivors and families of victims of the deadly Whakaari White Island eruption.
Seven parties will be sentenced in February, following a trial into health and safety failings in the lead up to the 2019 disaster which killed 22 people and injured 25 others.
At a pre-sentencing hearing held in the district court in Auckland on Wednesday, Judge Evangelos Thomas said any reparation would depend on the funds available - which would be known next month.
"We would love to properly recompense everyone who has suffered, but there's only going to be a finite amount of funds available and, as is always the case, it's going to be wholly insufficient to properly compensate even those who are the primary victims," he said.
"It's an awful position for us all to be in, to be even having this discussion but ... it's not for lack of acknowledging what everybody's gone through. It's just the legal reality of how we divide up what, in the scheme of things, is going to be a very small pot."
WorkSafe initially charged 13 parties following its investigation, and a lengthy trial into health and safety failings was held this year.
View of Whakaari / White Island from a monitoring flight on 31 August, 2022. Photo: GNS
The trial ended in September with the conviction of the company managing the volcanic island, Whakaari Management, after six parties pleaded guilty and six had charges dismissed.
WorkSafe prosecutor Kristy McDonald KC told the court on Tuesday that Whakaari Management had indicated it would not have sufficient funds to meet court orders.
White Island Tours had indicated it had a ceiling of $5 million, she said.
"A number of the legal issues really will be affected significantly by the size of the pot and the funds that are available."
On the day of the eruption, White Island Tours' boat, the Phoenix, was returning to Whakatāne when it turned around and rescued people.
WorkSafe prosecutor Kristy McDonald KC Photo: Pool
McDonald said some passengers aboard the Phoenix could be considered victims due to the emotional harm they experienced being exposed to the island's eruption.
"Again, your honour will have to factor into your considerations there whether there are sufficient funds for that group ... and in what way they are to be included as victims."
Judge Thomas said the claims of those who were not on the island during the eruption, or families of those who lost their lives, were going to be "insignificant".
"One of the overarching realities of this is that we're never going to be able to properly recompense those on the island for what they have endured whether physically or emotionally, and the families of those that have died," Judge Thomas said.
"I don't know what the pot looks like and I haven't heard the arguments as to the extent of emotional hard reparation.
"Reading between the lines, I doubt that there's going to be any funds available beyond ... once those emotional harm orders are made."