3 October 2019
Statement from Dr Alan Reay in response to the Court of Appeal decision released yesterday
The Court of Appeal has confirmed that IPENZ (ENZ) can re-start its 2012 complaint inquiry. I will now take time to
consider that decision.
The Court of Appeal says that it may be in the public interest for that to happen. I acknowledge that view, even though
it is 33 years after the events at the firm which I headed.
I have always rejected the complaint, given my reasons for that, and IPENZ dismissed the complaint years ago. I have
already accounted for my actions to the Royal Commission, the Police, IPENZ, and a CPEng complaint hearing which found
in my favour.
I am grateful for the support of the many clients, staff, friends and members of the public over the years. That support
has continued and indeed grown over this long and difficult period. I am confident that if IPENZ (ENZ) does look further
at the complaint, the wide support I have had will be found to be justified.
I do believe that a further complaint hearing is an unjustifiable waste of focus and resource for ENZ and our
engineering profession.
As I said when I resigned from IPENZ, the urgent need and the best service to the public would come from ENZ's focus and
resources on achieving better building standards and codes. Urgent needs I drew attention to then have still not been
dealt with.
The collapse of the CTV building could have been avoided, as the evidence to the Royal Commission showed. I did not
cause that, and other engineers who reviewed it during and after it was built did not see the faults in it.
That tragedy will continue to haunt me for the rest of my life – as I know it will many others. I have done everything
within my reach to identify what happened and how the engineering profession can ensure that it will not happen again,
including independent research and investigation. There is much work to do around building standards and codes, as the
more recent 2016 earthquakes have demonstrated. It is my hope that this can be the priority focus for our profession
from now on.
I will not be providing any further comment at this point.
Dr Alan M Reay
Ends