Author Dame Fiona Kidman throws support behind Pike River families

Tuesday, 25 May 2021

The Pike River Recovery Agency team has to tunnel through a Rocsil plug to get to the top of the drift. (Video first published February 2021).

Writer Dame Fiona Kidman is calling on New Zealanders to support the Pike River families in their continual search for answers over the tragedy.

Some family members and supporters of the 2010 West Coast mining disaster victims have been campaigning for the Government to continue gathering evidence from inside the mine.

A group representing 23 families presented the Government with a concept plan, developed by a group of mining experts, to recover the main ventilation fan.

The experts said evidence uncovered pointed to the fan being a likely cause of the explosion in the mine where 29 men were killed.

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Dame Fiona Kidman and her husband Ian at the Pike River protest in 2016.

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They said the fan recovery would cost $8 million and take 12 weeks using standard mining techniques to get past a roof fall blocking the top of the tunnel.

However, the Government has said while the Pike River Recovery Agency would review the plan, there was no blank chequebook.

The Pike River Recovery Agency is planning to seal the mine early next month to allow the site to be handed over to the Department of Conservation for inclusion in the Paparoa National Park.

Kidman and Pike River father Bernie Monk at a Pike River select committee hearing in 2017.

Some of the families have issued a statement saying they accept the Government’s position.

However, a group of 23 families plan to take out advertisements with New Zealand media outlets this week opposing the sealing of the mine.

Kidman, who campaigned with the families for drift re-entry in 2016, said the plans to permanently seal up remains and evidence was a travesty which should anger all New Zealanders, especially when mining experts said it was safe to keep going.

In 2017, she presented a petition to a select committee, beseeching MPs to help the families get into the 2.3km drift, or access tunnel.

Kidman has long championed the Pike River families’ cause.

The drift has been successfully recovered by the agency and police have reopened the criminal investigation.

However, Kidman said she was saddened the families were back where they were in 2016, having to fight the Government for re-entry.

She said she had enormous respect for former chief mines inspector Tony Forster who had helped develop the plan to recover the fan.

“I believe there is a case for going on past the rockfall, although actually it is coal not rock that is blocking the drift.

“I believe there is unexamined evidence of what happened at Pike River, and that the Government is only listening to a very small group of people who are agreeing to seal off the mine.

“I believe the plan to seal the mine is premature and I would like the Government to fully assess the experts’ plan before ruling it out,” she said.

“A lot of New Zealanders feel over it, but it is not over until we find out what happened and get the men’s bodies back to their families if possible.”

“If 29 people were buried in the middle of Wellington some way would have been found to get them out.”

Minister Responsible for Pike River Re-entry Andrew Little said he was awaiting advice about the concept plan.

“In the meantime I can confirm the agency has fulfilled the mandate agreed with the families to recover the drift.”