Pike River boss Peter Whittall guilt-free, living in Australia

Saturday, 18 August 2018

Unrepentant former Pike River boss Peter Whittall has horrified the dead men's families by dismissing a looming manslaughter prosecution, saying he has nothing to be ashamed of.

'Do I feel guilt? No,' Peter Whittall told Stuff. 'It is human nature to blame someone.'

​Whittall, who has kept his head down since leaving New Zealand in 2014, revealed he had married Angela Horne, the Pike River financial controller who alongside him had an overview of the mine's production.

Describing himself as 'very, very happily married,' the couple live in a $1.3m lifestyle block in Wollongong, south of Sydney. Whittall runs a resthome there. 

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Whittall's comments were met with fury by Anna Osborne, whose husband Milton died in the 2010 explosion.  

'That makes me bloody angry,' she said. 'For him, he's very lucky to be able to pick up and move on with his life. I've lost my husband, my breadwinner, my soulmate, my true love. I'll never be able to get that back.'  

WorkSafe laid health and safety charges against Whittall in 2013 but the case was dropped upon a $3.4 million settlement being paid – a deal the Supreme Court later ruled was wrong.

A lengthy Royal Commission inquiry concluded Pike River had a culture of production over safety and ignored warnings of dangerous gas levels in the days before the deaths.

Minister for Pike River Re-entry Andrew Little said he was glad Whittall understood one thing: someone would be held responsible.

'The re-entry programme could lead to further criminal investigation and prosecution,' he said. 'This Government is determined to follow through. This is a disaster and tragedy that didn't need to happen, it happened because of mismanagement and he was the centre of that.

'This is unfinished business, not only for the families but for this Government as well.'

Whittall said he was prepared to answer questions from officials, who could launch a manslaughter investigation if evidence of wrongdoing is found during re-entry. If authorities don't press charges, the families say they may mount a private prosecution.

Whittall said he struggled to accept any culpability. He'd hit 'dark times' after the November 2010 mine explosion, but didn't feel guilt. 'Because I don't know what happened. To this day nobody has told me what happened. Nobody knows, that's why the families want to go underground. People have theories but nobody actually knows,' Whittall said. 

'It was a terrible tragedy but I would defend my position because I feel I always put the interests of my staff and workforce before everything.

'Do I have an apology to make to the families? I think it's a tragedy and I absolutely apologise that it ever happened to them. Do I actually know what happened? No, I don't,' he said.

His comments come as families, lead by prominent lawyer Nigel Hampton QC, consider civil action or private prosecution against Pike River bosses. 

Police have been meeting with families preparing to reenter the Greymouth mine. Police say any new evidence found there would be assessed to determine what relevance it had to the 2013 investigation.

​The tragedy continued to haunt him, Whittall said.  

'I was awake for 24 hours a day for weeks and months. I was unemployed for three years. Anybody involved in Pike River would have to say they hit some dark times,' he said. 

'My coping mechanism has always been to talk to my family. I have never sought professional psychological assistance, but I have sought the assistance of my family and I have a wonderful wife.' 

Whittall is trying to live a quiet life of obscurity as chief executive of Illawarra Diggers Aged and Community Care and loves his new job. 

Whittall hadn't been able to completely run away from his past as commander in chief of New Zealand's largest mining disaster.

'We have a few old miners up at the facility,' he said. 'Do I ever forget it? No. Is there a day that goes by where I don't think about the impact it's had on my life and everyone else? No.

'I don't think I've moved on from it and I didn't even have a family member who died. It was a tragedy that couldn't not affect everyone's lives for their whole lifetime.

'I do feel for Pike River every day, it does affect my life, it still affects my life, it will always affect my life.'

Whittall understands he could become the subject of a police probe with a criminal prosecution for charges ranging from nuisance to manslaughter, and would cooperate - with a lawyer. 

'I always have. I cooperated proactively…I voluntarily stayed in New Zealand until everything was finished…I didn't run away from anything.'

He had 'no opinion' about a private prosecution. 

Anna Osborne said the comments made her 'bloody angry'. 

'The captain should go down with the ship and Peter Whittall was the CEO of the company and there is a lot of anger and hate towards him for the false hope he gave the families after the explosion. That was really cruel.' 

But Whittall was not the only one the families hold responsible.

'He had a part to play but there are other main managers and Government departments equally responsible, if not more, for those deaths. 

'There were mine managers that were on the ground at Pike and were well aware of the conditions underground.'

Deputy prime minister Winston Peters, who has advocated for reentering the mine and pledged to be the first inside, said he couldn't comment on the appropriateness of Whittall's comments but: 'I would have thought that he would have been wise to have said nothing at all.

'We will find out when the re-entry takes place whether or not there is evidence that further inquiries should take place.'

Additional reporting: Catherine Groenestein, Joanne Carroll