Press Release: Pike River Mine Committee. 13 December 2010

Pike River Mine Committee Formed

Families of those killed in the explosion of the Pike River Mine and surviving workers joined together today to form a Committee to represent them in the various investigations underway into the explosion and to represent their interest in all other official matters.

Bernie Monk, whose son Michael was killed in the explosion was elected spokesperson for the group and terms of reference were agreed.

The group will meet regularly and very quickly agree on legal representation for the upcoming Royal Commission and discuss the issues they want to see raised in relation to the explosion and subsequent rescue.

The group is calling for Government support to meet the legal costs of representation at the Royal Commission and the legal costs to enable families to resolve personal issues they might have arising from the tragedy.

Today the families passed a number of other recommendations including a request that the Government include a person agreed to by the Committee that is an expert in workplace health and safety regulation in New Zealand on the inquiry.

"The families and workers to date have sat back and listened to everything being done but now want to have a voice on all aspects of the recovery and inquiries. The very first and number one priority is to recover their men from the mine one way or another. The announcement today that the company has gone into receivership is a huge blow but we were pleased that the receiver committed today to lobby the Government for funding to continue with the recovery as per John Key's commitment to the families at the National Memorial Service." Bernie Monk said.

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