The Labor Party-led Pike River Recovery Agency (PRRA) continues work to seal off the Pike River coal mine, where 29 people were killed in the November 2010 disaster. review of crucial evidence about what set off a series of explosions.
For more than a decade, the political establishment has protected those responsible for the disaster, including the former managers, CEOs and directors of Pike River Coal. A 2012 royal commission found that the company was endangering the lives of its workers in order to save money. The mine had very inadequate ventilation and methane gas monitoring, an extremely dangerous underground ventilator, and no emergency exits as required by law. No one has ever been held responsible for turning the mine into a death trap.
In an update sent to family members of the victims on Monday, PRRA chief executive Dave Gawn said “good progress” had been made on the first joint, 170 meters inside the gallery, the entrance tunnel into the mine. Work will continue this week. The agency plans to install a second permanent concrete joint 30 meters inside the mine in the coming weeks.
The ruling elite are extremely worried about the widespread support of workers, in New Zealand and abroad, for the majority of the 29 families, who are demanding an end to the sealing of the mine and a full underground investigation.
The media try to keep the population in the dark, by reporting as little as possible. Friday July 30, Newshub falsely reported that “work to seal the mine has temporarily ceased”. In fact, work was only delayed last week due to bad weather and a demonstration Thursday on the mine road to Bernie Monk, whose son Michael died in the disaster.
On July 30, Winston Peters, leader of the right-wing nationalist New Zealand First Party, traveled to Greymouth, near Pike River, to pose as a supporter of families. Peters served as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs in Jacinda Ardern’s 2017-2020 Labor government, which also included the Green Party. NZ First lost all of its seats in parliament in the October 2020 elections, obtaining just 2.6% of the vote.
Peters has had discussions with some of the family, as well as technical experts, including former chief mine inspector Tony Forster. Peters said Newshub the government was reversing the 2017 coalition agreement between Labor and NZ First. He said: “I know what a cover-up looks like, and this thing stinks to the sky.”
The three parties pledged in 2017 to re-enter the mine to search for human remains and gather the evidence needed to prosecute those responsible for the disaster. Pike River Re-entry Minister Andrew Little, however, announced in late March 2021 that the government was ending the underground investigation, having only explored the gallery. The government claimed it was too costly to go any further, beyond two piles of coal in the mine yards.
The Ardern government is certainly engaged in a cover-up operation, aimed at protecting business leaders and those who allowed their extremely dangerous operations. This includes successive governments that have deregulated safety in the mining industry; the Department of Labor which allowed Pike River to operate; and the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU), which was headed by Andrew Little when the mine exploded and had done nothing to protect its members underground.
the World Socialist Website however, warns that no trust can be placed in NZ First. Peters uses the Pike River problem in a cynical attempt to resurrect his political career. When NZ First was in government, he accompanied the efforts to close the investigation.
The Labor-NZ First-Greens coalition government has indicated it will prevent Pike River from reentrying well ahead of the October 2020 election. In an official Cabinet document dated March 9, 2020, Little said: “I don’t. have no intention of making a proposal to Cabinet to go beyond the roof drop at the end of the gallery and explore the main mining works. ” On June 10, 2020, Little again told a parliamentary committee, “I am very clear, and the Cabinet has been very clear, there are no additional resources” to get past the drift.
There is no record of Winston Peters or NZ First’s other Cabinet minister, Defense Minister Ron Mark, raising objections to these statements.
On October 7, shortly before the elections, Peters was invited by the New Zealand Herald if he still supported the re-entry of Pike River. Peters said yes and he wanted justice for families, but he did not mention his own government’s refusal to enter the mine sites. Peters clearly hoped to return to government in coalition with Labor, in which case there is every reason to believe he would have continued to support the sealing of the mine.
During the Ardern government’s first term, NZ First and Labor worked closely on policies to reduce immigration, increase military spending and strengthen ties with the United States. The government has also transferred tens of billions of dollars to the rich in the form of low taxes, bailouts and subsidies, while starving essential services, including health and education systems, prompting nationwide strikes in the country. ‘nurses, doctors, teachers and other health workers.
The decision to close the Pike River investigation and shield criminal companies from liability is part of these broader pro-business policies and attacks on the working class.
NZ First was one of successive governments that created the deregulated, business-friendly environment that led to the Pike River disaster.
Prior to the founding of NZ First in 1993, Peters was a senior member of the National Party government who initiated the mass destruction of mine safety regulations. In 1992, a law was passed to abolish the Specialized Inspectorate of Coal Mines and abolish the obligation to have safety check inspectors elected by workers.
NZ first entered a coalition government with National from 1996 to 1998. As treasurer and deputy prime minister, Peters told a business audience on February 11, 1997 that he supported a “deregulated market” , competitive and open ”, with reduced costs for businesses, including“ lowest possible taxes ”.
In 1997, the government unit Crown Minerals granted New Zealand Oil & Gas, the largest shareholder in Pike River, a license to develop the mine. According to reporter Rebecca Macfie, Crown Minerals was “a permit mill” without “caring whether Pike’s proposal was technically sound, financially viable or secure.”
NZ First again played a major role in Helen Clark’s Labor Party-led coalition government from 2005 to 2008, Peters being foreign minister. During this time, Pike River Coal began to develop its mine. In 2007, the company told the Ministry of Labor that it planned to install its main ventilation unit underground, which was not the case in coal mines due to the safety risks involved. The agency did not oppose it and nothing in the law prevents the company from doing so.
At this point, the mining industry was completely deregulated. According to the 2012 royal commission report, “from 2001 to October 2011, the number of mine inspectors fluctuated between one and two,” covering the entire country.
The record shows that no capitalist party can be called upon to stop the sealing of the Pike River mine. Government pressure to bury the truth will protect those responsible for the disaster and pave the way for more egregious workplace safety violations and fatalities.
Only the intervention of the working class can stop this cover-up. the World Socialist Website calls on workers in New Zealand and around the world to demand an immediate end to the closure of the mine and to support the fight for a full underground investigation.
