No magic, much mystery, about Pike River's disappearing cabinet cover

Monday, 18 February 2019

Pike River father Bernie Monk. The questions keep coming.

EDITORIAL: Cabinets of mystery tend to invite the image of the stage magician who is often a master of misdirection. Look closely, by all means, but over here not over there.

The dynamics of what happens behind the magician's cabinet door are kept secret, beyond our inspection, to preserve the puzzle.

Electrical cabinets are a different matter entirely. They're meant to be opened for inspection. So the apparent disappearance of a cabinet cover blown to the surface in the Pike River explosions that claimed 29 lives in 2010 is no mere tantalisation. It is disturbing.

We don't know if this was a blown cover in the figurative sense as well as the literal. But we do know that it was photographed after the detonation, outside the mine, and was reportedly helicoptered to the now-disgraced company's office, not to be been seen since.

* Miners trained in forensic work ahead of planned Pike River mine re-entry

* Pike River re-entry could cost $12m more than $23m budget, minister says**

The Royal Commission into the disaster has already found that a lot of electrical equipment inside that mine was neither intrinsically safe nor flameproof and former mines inspector Tony Forster, now acting for the Pike River families, is clear that it was the cover to a non-approved, non-certified electrical chamber.

And it seems neither the commission nor the police knew about that cover. Which really matters. This door could show that the explosion came from inside that little electrical chamber. Or, alternatively, that an external force, from an explosion elsewhere, that tore it off and carried it out the mine.

Either way, its importance to the investigation seems unassailable. And its apparent disappearance must be explained.

Police Assistant Commissioner Tusha Penny says she first became aware of the matter last week, and police are making enquiries. This has included - but presumably isn't confined to - a public appeal for anyone with information to come forward.

This latest discovery surely adds to the impression that the more shafts of light are shone into this wretched business, the more shadowy the rest of it appears to be.

As bereaved father Bernie Monk says: 'Someone knew that incredibly important evidence had turned up and somebody knows what happened to it.'

The families have been steadfast in their determination for an investigation to be carried out with diligence and integrity, albeit in the face of a corrosive series of failings of oversight before and since the disaster.

Among the latter was the decision by WorkSafe to drop 12 health and safety charges against former mine boss Peter Whittall after he paid a $3.4m settlement to families and survivors - a deal the Supreme Court has since ruled to have been an unlawful bargain to prevent prosecution.

The Government has committed to a re-entry to the drift using the existing access tunnel. Quite possibly, no bodies will be discovered this side of the internal collapse. But here we have a further reminder, if any were needed, that the task ahead is not simply about searching for mortal remains to ease the families' pain. It is also about a still unsatisfied search for truth, including whether criminal investigations which to this day remain open should be resumed.