Hope for Pike River families
During the desperate search for moments of significance as NZ First met with National and Labour this week, one meeting did stand out as genuinely important and unusual.
Before NZ First leader Winston Peters sat down with the two larger parties, he took time to speak with Bernie Monk, Sonya Rockhouse and Anna Osborne, three representatives of the Pike River families who have tirelessly sought justice and closure since the mining disaster on the West Coast killed 29 men in 2010.
Peters’ many bottom lines became notorious during the 2017 election campaign, but the timing and prominence of the Pike River meeting suggested a commitment to seeing this promise through. Monk left the meeting reassured that Peters would try to retrieve the 29 bodies from the mine, calling it ‘‘a big step forward’’.
It followed earlier promises from Peters. Monk said in January that Peters told him he ‘‘wouldn’t go into coalition with any party that doesn’t support what the families are trying to achieve’’.
We will soon learn if Peters is able to honour that bold commitment to Monk and other family members. Despite its own promises, the John Key Government repeatedly put reentry in the too-hard basket and National was unwilling to even meet with the families this week. But Labour and the Green Party also made re-entry a priority.
The family members were in Wellington because of another development in the long-running and often harrowing story. The Supreme Court is considering whether Worksafe NZ struck an ‘‘unlawful bargain’’ with former Pike River Coal chief executive Peter Whittall. Twelve charges against Whittall were dropped after he made a payment to the families of $3.41 million in 2013.
Some family members described the sum, which came from an insurance payment, as ‘‘blood money’’ and there is no doubt that the lack of accountability is one of the least satisfactory outcomes of the Pike River story.
Rockhouse and Osborne are appealing a decision to refuse a judicial review of the earlier decision to drop the charges against Whittall.
They recognise it is too late to make Whittall face the charges in court and hope instead that the Supreme Court will at least be able to say that Worksafe NZ was wrong to make a deal.
Worksafe has argued all along that it was not a deal, but rather that a case against Whittall would be lengthy, complex and have a low chance of success.
Rockhouse and Monk lost their sons in the mine and Osborne lost her husband. The three have a tenacity that is borne of anger mixed with grief.
They and other Pike River families simply want to bury their loved ones’ bodies and have someone held responsible for a disaster that struck so many lives and continues to enact an emotional toll on a community.