Families call out names
The names of all 29 men killed at Pike River were called out at the mine portal yesterday to commemorate eight years since the tragedy.
Families went up to the mine portal to lay flowers and do a roll call of the names of the 29 men who died in the mine explosion on November 19, 2010.
Pike River father Rowdy Durbridge said this year’s anniversary felt different to previous years.
He said the memorial area at the end of the Pike River access road had been donated by a local farmer and decorated with rocks from the mine.
‘‘I was very keen to see what progress has been made in terms of preparation for the re-entry now that approval has been given,’’ Minister responsible for Pike River re-entry, Andrew Little, said at the site. Families of the 29 men who died in the Pike River Mine were ‘‘horribly badly’’ let down by government, and an apology will be considered, says Andrew Little, Minister responsible for Pike River Re-entry.
Little yesterday told Radio NZ he was not blaming any one party. ‘‘The reality is the degrading of our health-andsafety laws, the degrading of employment rights happened over a period of time.
‘‘We allowed our political culture to develop to the point where workers’ rights became a
‘‘There’d already been work done getting things ready and the agency management were able to give me an idea of the work that has to be done for the re-entry itself in February next year.
‘‘So it was good to get a briefing tradeable commodity. When we allowed that to happen, then we were on that kind of pathway to have disasters like that,’’ Little said. ‘‘It happened because we allowed a political culture to develop where these things were degraded and devalued, and now we’ve got to find a way to make sure that this never happens again,’’ he said.
Along with the government failures that contributed, there were things that happened afterward, such as the ‘‘botched’’ prosecution of Pike River boss Peter Whittall.
on all of that,’’ he said.
The families were pleased with the commitment from the Government to re-enter the mine and a government apology would be appropriate after re-entry was completed, he said.