Ryan Bridge: What's the harm in the public knowing what went wrong on HMNZS Manawanui?

Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

Why? It's the question we all want answered this morning. But what we'll get is a bunch of speculation.

The first most important question has been answered. Is the crew safe? Yes. Thankfully.

And by the sounds of it, it's thanks in large part to help from others, the decision to abandon ship and a dose of good luck.

Some of the crew spent five hours in life rafts battling the conditions to make it to shore. One capsized before getting there.

But we have so many questions. How come? We've just lost our first Navy vessel since WWII worth $100 million. Up in smoke.

Why did the Manawanui hit a reef? Was it human error? Was it mechanical failure? What happened on the bridge in the moments leading up to the collision? Where was the officer of the watch?

Were there no alarms sounding? Was it the weather? Why was it surveying so close to a known reef at night? Why did it catch fire?

We so far have zero answers. We know the sea was rough and the wind was strong, but that's about it.

The Navy and the Minister both say wait for a Court of Inquiry. But is that good enough? Surely they have some idea of what went wrong by now. What's the harm in the public knowing what they know? Can we not handle the truth?

We've been here before. Remember the Interislander grounding? There were crickets till New Zealand First started tweeting.

We learnt from the Northland pylon debacle that officials pretty much know straight away what went wrong, but we wait for inquiries and reports and courts to tell us the truth months later.

This is more media management than investigation integrity.

The problem with this strategy is the void gets filled with a bunch of speculation rather than facts, at least as established thus far.

And a little bit of accurate info is surely better than a whole bunch of the opposite.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.