Extracting the truth on mining

and businesses for decades to come; she believes gas will still play a key role when renewables do not meet all of our power needs; and as the minister responsible for the Earthquake Commission she freely admits there will soon be little left in the kitty, which will mean a significant government top-up.

But the minister has been less than forthright, in fact quite vague and possibly even deliberately obtuse, on the future for coal. Pushed on the future for the industry, she says there are no plans and there have been no announcements, despite clear signals on fossil fuels, including Climate Change Minister James Shaw signing an international pact to phase out coal for power generation by 2030.

We believe there are 30 reasons for that lack of transparency. And we believe it runs counter to the ‘‘just transition’’ this government has trumpeted as it plots a future without fossil fuels.

Twenty-nine of those reasons lie somewhere deep into the drift of the Pike River mine.

This Government has established an agency to work towards entering the mine, possibly retrieving some, if not all, of the bodies of the men within, and hopefully bringing some solace to the families.

The impact of this great feat would be diminished considerably if the closure sought by the families became a metaphor for the Government’s plans for the industry.

Those plans, should they exist, would also mean a death in the wider Labour Party family.

The black of hard-mined coal smeared the faces and coursed the veins of the ancestors of those who now bleed red and sit in providence over the regions.

The West Coast is considered the spiritual home of the party, and mining its foundations.

Children grow up, leave the house and move away, but only the reckless and truly ungrateful are happy to tear it down.

But, however painful, it defies logic to focus on oil and gas exploration and ignore another industry considered even more of a threat to the climate.

The industry knows the spigot is soon to be turned off; so do the regions.

They’re not entirely happy about it, but

they want a ‘‘just transition’’. Not a ‘‘just say nothing’’.