Hearing told of Whittall clashes

Bitter clashes between managers and Pike River coalmine’s former chief executive, Peter Whittall, have been revealed at the inquiry into the disaster.

Pike River Coal former general manager Doug White continued to give evidence yesterday at the royal commission into the deaths of 29 men.

Three days before the underground West Coast mine exploded on November 19, 2010, Mr White wrote to a friend calling Mr Whittall ‘‘a dodgy git’’ and a liar.

‘‘I am now the GM for the whole site. The previous GM did a number on the previous CEO and is now the CEO (and still a dodgy git),’’ he wrote.

He found it ‘‘very hard to work for someone who has made or overseen so many stuff-ups and blames everyone else (he tells lies too)’’.

Mr White said it was the ‘‘final straw’’ when Mr Whittall accused him of causing a 7 per cent drop in the mine’s share price after making unwise comments to a visiting group of stockbrokers less than two weeks before the explosion.

When investigators interviewed Mr White after the explosion, he said Mr Whittall was ‘‘overbearing’’, ‘‘dictatorial’’ and publicly berated other staff.

‘‘There was not a great deal of love lost between the team of managers and Peter Whittall, who called him a megalomaniac and dictatorial,’’ an investigators’ report said.

Mr White said several managers raised concerns with him about Mr Whittall. Mr White agreed his ‘‘deep-seated attitude’’ towards the chief executive made it difficult to work with Mr Whittall.

Mr Whittall appeared at earlier hearings, but refused to give evidence at the inquiry’s ongoing phase-three hearings, which focus on what happened at the mine.

Other emails shown yesterday highlighted Mr White’s efforts to seek a new job in Australia, which he turned down a month before the November 19 explosion.

He became emotional, wiping tears from his eyes, while talking about his decision to stay at Pike River, where he started working in January 2010.