Mine re-entry confirmed . . .
Pike families: ‘We need answers’
‘‘We need to bring our men home if we can. We need answers to questions that we don’t have. We need the unexplored crime scene investigated. We can do this. We’re going to do this.’’ Anna Osborne
A $23 million plan to re-enter the Pike River Mine is a victory ‘‘for the little people in New Zealand’’.
‘‘We fought really hard for our men for a very long time,’’ Anna Osborne said as the Government gave the all-clear for a manned reentry into the mine where 29 men died in an explosion eight years ago. Their bodies have not been recovered.
‘‘We need to bring our men home if we can . . . We need answers to questions that we don’t have.’’
Osborne, Bernie Monk and Sonya Rockhouse, who all lost relatives in the West Coast disaster, were at the announcement by Pike River Re-entry Minister Andrew Little yesterday morning at Parliament.
When Little said ‘‘we are returning’’, they hugged each other and cried.
‘‘We need the unexplored crime scene investigated . . . We can do this. We’re going to do this,’’ Osborne said.
The aim of re-entry is to recover any bodies of the men that might be in the mine drift and gather any evidence of what might have caused the methane explosion.
The area will be treated as a crime scene and Police Commissioner Mike Bush has not ruled out the possibility of manslaughter charges.
Police will conduct their own forensic investigation, alongside mining and recovery experts who hope to retrieve what remains of the men.
Dangers remained, but Little said extensive advice had shown using the mine’s existing access tunnel would be ‘‘by far the safest option’’ for getting back in.
It was likely to be about February before the re-entry proper got under way, by breaching the 30-metre seal.
Two years ago, Rockhouse and Osborne were camped outside the mine’s entry, protesting the plan to permanently seal it with concrete.
They will walk 170m into the mine together in February.
Yesterday’s decision was a ‘‘big win’’ that showed the ‘‘little person can stand up and fight for what they believe in’’, Rockhouse said. ‘‘My son, Ben, was 20 when he was killed. Finally we will be able to resolve this and hopefully be able to move on.’’
Monk said the announcement was ‘‘a monumental turnaround for the country’’. He himself had no qualms about going in himself.
‘‘Our battle’s about to begin now; I want justice, I want accountability and I want the truth.’’
The re-entry plan was the same internationally-designed method suggested in 2014, he said.
‘‘That’s what makes me so angry about this procedure; we had this plan.
‘‘People might go on about the money being spent, but if the National Government had listened to us it would have been a lot less.’’
Monk believed the ‘‘historic’’ decision would restore international confidence in the mining industry by proving accountability and justice were not just words.
He said he was willing to bring forward any evidence from the mine shaft that would spark investigations into alleged failings by the then-Department of Labour, or former Pike River bosses Peter Whittall, Steve Ellis, and Doug White. ‘‘I would like to see manslaughter charges.’’
Rockhouse, Osborne and Monk do not represent all Pike River families. The mother of one of the miners killed is ‘‘disgusted’’ the Government has approved reentry, saying public money is better spent elsewhere. She did not wish to be named.
Greymouth mayor Tony Kokshoorn said the announcement was ‘‘excellent news’’, which would bring closure to West Coasters.