A last stand for justice on Pike River

A grieving mother responds to columnist Damien Grant’s argument that recovery of the bodies of those lost in the 2010 disaster is untenable.

Four months ago, we’d pretty much lost hope of ever getting justice for what happened to our boys at Pike River. The Government was going to permanently seal the mine, and we’d lost our case for a judicial review of former Pike River Coal chief executive Peter Whittall’s dirty deal with Worksafe. It looked like the man in charge when 29 husbands, sons and fathers died would walk away scotfree – and any evidence telling us what happened on that awful day in 2010 would be sealed away forever with the bodies of our loved ones.

Anna Osborne and I decided we’d give it one last shot. We wanted our boys to know we’d done our best to get justice for them. We towed a caravan up to the Pike River Mine road, a desolate, raw place surrounded by thick, primitive, bush.

It was a beautiful calm morning. We put a couple of folding chairs down in front of the gate and put the word out on Facebook that we’re not going to move. It was desperate lastditch stuff but we just couldn’t walk away without trying to get to the truth. Within hours people started turning up to drop off food and tell us how much they supported our stand and it just grew from there. A few months, and tens of thousands of messages of support later, we were sitting in a room with the Prime Minister, making our case.

What we wanted was simple then, and it’s simple now. Don’t seal the mine until the drift – the 2.3km entrance tunnel leading to the mine – is explored.

At the select committee just a week and a half ago, Solid Energy was forced to admit there may be bodies in the drift. There may even be a drift runner – a transport vehicle used by men who were changing shift when the first explosion happened.

But it’s not just bodies. The drift also contains evidence like switchgear, the equivalent of fuseboxes, which could show what machinery shorted out and sparked the disaster – if, as the Royal Commission suggested, an electrical fault caused the blast.

This isn’t some pipe-dream of grieving families, and we’re sick of people talking down to us like it is. We’ve known since 2011 the main workings of the mine are too dangerous to explore. But the drift can be made safe to re-enter.

Dave Creedy, vice chair of the UN group of experts on mine methane, has worked with Bob Stevenson, another renowned international expert, on a plan to do it. Tony Forster, the former chief inspector of mines, and Robyn Hughes, Solid Energy’s own expert and former manager of the Pike River recovery, say it can be done. Another halfdozen international mining and mines rescue experts agree with them.

We want justice. We’ve gone way beyond what we should have to prove it can be achieved. The Prime Minister’s offer of further remote exploration of the drift is welcome, but drones can’t recover bodies, and after six years of stalling we won’t let the Government kick for touch again. That’s why our experts are working on a timeline to get it done as soon as possible. And that’s why we want an independent, transparent review of the plan to get into the drift. It’s not hard. Just get our experts and Solid Energy’s experts around the table and work it out.

Anna and I and the rest of the families don’t want to be going through this. Six years is too long to have to fight for justice. We only hope the day will come when we can fold up the chairs at the Pike River gate, tuck them in the caravan, and go back to our lives knowing we’ve done right by our boys. It’s that simple.

This isn’t some pipe-dream of grieving families, and we’re sick of people talking down to us like it is.