Source: Radio New Zealand
Paul Davison KC has been named to help Tauranga City Council’s external review. RNZ
Hundreds of thousands of files have been identified by Tauranga City Council that it thinks could be relevant to a review of what it knew and how fast it acted before the deadly landslip at Mount Maunganui that left six holiday-makers dead.
The council on Thursday named retired High Court judge Paul Davison KC to help the external review.
The review, while separate to a government inquiry also confirmed the same day, would aim to work alongside it and try to cut any duplication.
Davison has been tasked with delivering his findings by the end of June, a target both he and Tauranga Mayor Mahé Drysdale were confident of reaching.
“It really depends on once he gets into his work and understands the scale,” Drysdale said.
“It is quite a narrow scope, but with the ability for him to go wider if he feels it’s relevant, so we’ll trust his judgement on that.”
But the mayor told RNZ it was a big job ahead.
“The total documents that we’re looking at the moment is in the hundreds of thousands,” he said.
It was based on search terms staff had used to scour through documents.
“So, just literally searching every file we have, every e-mail, every conversation that’s recorded,” Drysdale said.
Tauranga mayor Mahé Drysdale at a media stand up after the Mount Maunganui landslide. Lauren Crimp
The mayor said all of these now had to be waded through to see if they were relevant to Davison’s review.
Drysdale said Davison was “the right man for the job” given his extensive experience, and what he said was a reputation for rigorous analysis.
Read RNZ National Crime Correspondent Sam Sherwood’s earlier report of who knew what, and when.
The mayor was asked if he had considered any future actions if Davison’s report found any fault with the council.
“Look, at the end of the day we lost six lives and it’s important that we understand what happened, whether that’s good, bad or indifferent,” Drysdale said.
“I’m sure that there’s going to be some things that are found that we could have done better and it’s important that we know that so we can put those processes in place going forward to enable that we don’t go through a similar situation.”
Fire and Emergency (FENZ) previously confirmed it got a 111 call at 5.48am before the tragedy, from a person reporting a slip near the holiday park.
It said at the time it contacted Tauranga City Council at 5.51am, given it owned the camping ground.
The council confirmed it received a call from FENZ.
Davison told RNZ he would need unrestricted access to “any” information the council held.
“If I didn’t have unrestricted information or access to it, then clearly I wouldn’t be able to undertake an effective review,” he said.
The deadline for the review was able to be extended with agreement from the mayor.
“But … we need this in a timely manner, because we don’t want to wait,” he said.
“We’re hopeful we can get the report as quickly as possible.”
Davison said he would work to complete the report as soon as he possibly could.
Who is Paul Davison?
- Admitted as a barrister and solicitor in 1975
- Made a High Court judge in 2015 and retired in 2023 before continuing work in law as a mediator, arbitrator and consulting
- Has sat as a member of a Divisional Court of Appeal
- Has acted as counsel in several major commissions of inquiry, notably the Royal Commission into the Air New Zealand Erebus disaster
- In 2025, undertook a government-appointed role of independent arbiter to determine financial redress for Lake Alice survivors
- Appointed Kim Dotcom’s lawyer soon after his arrest
- Lead defence lawyer in 2009 for Mangere MP Taito Phillip Field
- Appeared as Crown counsel in the case against David Tamihere.
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand