The director of Maritime New Zealand has defended the organisation's handling of the Rena disaster.
On the first anniversary of the ship hitting Astrolabe Reef off the coast of Tauranga, Keith Manch told TV3 Maritime NZ responded well.
"The response was quite intense in the early stages. There were a couple of issues about the amount of community engagement that occurred and that sort of thing but technically all of the right experience and people were on the scene pretty quickly doing all the right things."
A review of Maritime NZ's operational response to the disaster would test those things and see what lessons could be learnt, he said.
'Everything we know at the moment indicates we did a reasonably good job."
Mr Manch also defended the appointment of former spy agency boss Simon Murdoch, who approved the illegal surveillance of Kim Dotcom, to conduct a review of the response.
"The point is that Mr Murdoch has got wide and deep experience across Government over many years and he's widely respected," said Mr Manch. "He's got exactly the kind of experience and credentials that are appropriate to do this kind of work and I'm confident he'll do a good job."
The review would cover Maritime NZ's response, the way it worked with other agencies, and the timing of aspects of the response.
Recommendations will be made public.
