Pike River Families' Bernie Monk calls for White Island royal commission

Thursday, 2 January 2020

A Workplace Health and Safety investigation into the Whakaari/White Island eruption could take a year to complete. (Video first published December 16, 2019)

An advocate for the Pike River mine victims says a royal commission must be held into the deaths on Whakaari/White Island.

But Bernie Monk says New Zealand should not repeat the mistakes made establishing the Pike River Royal Commission, which allowed some aspects of the disaster that killed 29 miners to be 'covered up'.

Pressure from the men's families meant a royal commission was announced within 10 days of the first explosion at the West Coast mine.

Everyone who could be found has now been returned from White Island/Whakaari, but no Royal Commission has been announced.

So far no royal commission has been slated to probe the deaths and injuries of tourists and tour guides with White Island Tours, caused when White Island erupted on December 9.

* Worksafe sent expert to White Island/Whakaari

Andrew Little, right, meeting with Pike River families spokesman Bernie Monk in February.

* Locals continue search for bodies of Whakaari / White Island

* Whakaari/White Island: Govt details business support package

* Pike River mine re-entry: A momentous day captured in pictures

* New date for Pike River mine drift reopening after failed attempt

Flames coming out of a ventilation shaft at Pike River Mine after a fourth explosion.

* The promise to Pike River miners: 'We will not rest and we will never give up. We will return'**

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has said there will be an inquiry, but hasn't said whether it will be a royal commission.

WorkSafe, the regulator of adventure tourism operators including White Island Tours, said it will investigate the disaster, but Monk believes WorkSafe's role in the disaster should come under independent scrutiny.

'They are investigating themselves.'

Pike River families' immediate reaction to the deaths on White Island was a dreadful sense of déjà vu, he said.

Andrew Little, Pike River Minister, announced re-entry to recover the 29 bodies from the mine in February 2019. Pike River Family members Anna Osborne, Sonya Rockhouse and Bernie Monk embrace.

'All the work the Pike families did with WorkSafe, and other government departments on [health and safety] after Pike River, went out the window after what has happened at White Island.'

Monk, whose son Michael died in the mine disaster, said he was sceptical there had been a national culture change regarding safety after Pike.

Failures by the Department of Labour's mine inspectorate were highlighted in the Pike River Royal Commission report, which concluded there had been a 'failure to resource, manage and adequately support a diminished mining inspectorate'.

The site of the fatal balloon crash in Carterton, Wairarapa, in which 11 people were killed.

There were only two mine inspectors for the whole country, covering so many mines and quarries they could not carry out their work, the commission found.

Monk said the terms of a royal commission into the deaths on White Island need to be set broadly enough so any failures in the run up to, and the aftermath of the eruption, cannot be covered up.

'Royal commissions work within the boundaries they are set by the government.'

The Pike River Royal Commission, which had led to the creation of WorkSafe, did not go far enough, he said.

A stone cairn stands as a memorial to 14 people who died at Cave Creek in April 1995.

The twisted wreckage from the crashed Air New Zealand DC-10 plane litters the slopes of Mount Erebus.

The Wahine lies on its side in Wellington harbour in 1968.

Pressure to establish a royal commission on Pike River came quickly from the victims' families, who organised immediately after the disaster happened.

The Duke of Edinburgh (Prince Philip) attended the funeral at Karori Cemetery, Wellington, on December 31, 1953, for the 21 victims of the Tangiwai tragedy.

On November 18, 1947, the central Christchurch department store Ballantynes caught fire, killing 41 people.

Monk recalls addressing a meeting police had said he could not speak at.

'I hit my arm on the table in the big hall so hard everyone stopped talking. I said, 'If you want a cover up like Erebus, or the Cave Creek disaster, don't talk to me, but if you want to be represented properly in a royal commission I want to get set up, and be represented by a good legal team. We have to work as a 29, not as individuals'.'

On White Island, 13 of the dead and 11 of the injured were Australian. Four of the dead and five of the injured were from the United States. Two of the dead and three of the injured were from New Zealand. There were injuries to nine people from Germany, the United Kingdom, China and Malaysia.

Monk said the Pike families did not trust WorkSafe, and went to court to prove it had cut an illegal deal to drop charges against Pike River Mine boss Peter Whittall.

New Zealand's long-standing practice after events causing multiple deaths is to hold independent inquiries, which happened after each of the country's non-wartime biggest man-made disasters.

Sometimes the inquiries are held by established commissions, such as the Transport Accident Investigation Commission, while others were investigated by specially-convened commissions and boards of inquiry. Some resulted in changes to laws and practice, which arguably saved lives.

NZ'S HISTORY OF DISASTER INQUIRIES

2012 Carterton balloon crash: Investigation by the Transport Accident Investigation Commission (TAIC) into the January 7 disaster in which a Cameron Balloons Limited A210 hot air balloon hit powerlines, killing the pilot and 10 tourists.

2015 Fox Glacier helicopter crash: Investigation by TAIC found the helicopter was overweight and being flown by an inexperienced pilot in poor weather when it crashed on a West Coast scenic tour, killing all seven on board.

2010 Pike River Mine explosion: Royal Commission of Inquiry into the November 19 explosion, which killed 29 miners, found a litany of failings by Department of Labour, its mine inspectors, and Pike River management.

1995 Cave Creek platform collapse: On April 28 a scenic viewing platform in Paparoa National Park collapsed, killing 14 people, including 13 university students. A commission of inquiry found series systemic failures at the Department of Conservation led to the building of an unsafe platform.

1979 Mount Erebus crash: A Royal Commission resulted in chairman Justice Peter Mahon's famous phrase 'an orchestrated litany of lies' about the cover-up that followed Air New Zealand's errors leading to 257 people losing their lives when a tourist flight crashed into Mount Erebus in the Antarctic on November 28.

1968 sinking of the Wahine: 51 people died when the Wahine foundered in hurricane-force winds in Wellington Harbour on April 10. A Court of Inquiry was set up to investigate.

1963 crash of Flight 441: 23 people died when a DC3 operated by the National Airways Corporation crashed into a rock wall in the Kaimai Range near Tauranga. The crash was investigated through a public inquiry.

1953 Tangiwai train crash: The Christmas Eve disaster in which 151 people died, caused by a bridge being washed away by a lahar from Mount Ruapehu, was investigated by a Board of Inquiry. It led to a lahar early warning system being deployed.

1947 Ballantyne's fire: 41 people were killed in the Christchurch department store fire on November 18. A Royal Commission found failures in fire safety in the store, no sprinkler system, no fire safety doors, defective fire safety regulation in the city, poor store staff training, and mistakes of firefighters using obsolete firefighting equipment.

1943 Hyde railway disaster: 21 people were killed when a passenger train derailed in Otago. A Board of Inquiry investigated and found the train was travelling too fast for a curve in the track.

1914 Huntly mine disaster: On September 12, methane ignited by an acetylene lamp exploded, killing 43 miners. A Commission of Inquiry ordered the immediate introduction of safety lamps.

1896 Brunner Mine disaster: After 65 people died in the Brunner Mine explosion on March 26, a Commission of Inquiry cleared management and blamed human error by miners.

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