Maritime Union concerned at treatment of Wellington Coroner

The Mari­time Uni­on of New Zea­l­and has spoken out against the replace­ment of Wel­ling­ton cor­on­er Garry Evans and paid trib­ute to his long ser­vice.

Mari­time Uni­on Gen­er­al Sec­ret­ary Tre­vor Han­son says the Uni­on has worked along­side Mr Evans going back at least 40 years.

Mr Han­son says Mr Evan’s approach to every­day human prob­lems was con­sist­ent.

“Any aver­age cit­izen with in par­tic­u­lar acci­dent related prob­lems received 100% assist­ance, and any Gov­ern­ment Agency that did not ful­fil their law­ful duty was quickly rep­rim­anded.”

Mr Han­son says Mr Evans has assisted thou­sands of cit­izens, mostly from work­ing class back­grounds, who struggled with the com­plex­it­ies of legis­la­tion.

“Many low paid work­ers from around New Zea­l­and have been assisted by Garry and usu­ally with sat­is­fact­ory out­comes.”

He says that that since Mr Evans appoint­ment as Cor­on­er, his prin­ciples have strengthened his decisions and have had a pos­it­ive bene­fit both for Wel­ling­ton and New Zea­l­and.

Mr Han­son says the replace­ment of Mr Evans is troub­ling to the Mari­time Uni­on and to lose his exper­i­ence and cred­ib­il­ity would be a bad mis­take.