Young Jonathan: General Debate 
Young Jonathan: General Debate 
[Volume:669;Page:15749] 
JONATHAN YOUNG (National—New Plymouth) 
: 
 I join with my colleague the Hon Nathan Guy. People all over this nation and without doubt communities around the world right now are with the miners at Pike River and their families heart and mind who are waiting in such difficult and incredibly uncertain times. 
New Plymouth mother Natricia Herk has flown down to Greymouth. Her son Daniel a father of two is one of the 29 miners. There were 31 men in the mine. Two men Daniel Rockhouse and Russell Smith escaped through a service portal and walked 1.5 kilometres to safety. That leaves 29 other men—24 New Zealanders two Australians two Britons and one South African—who have not emerged. 
It is certainly in the worst of times such as this that the best of communities pulling together is so important. Today we acknowledge the tremendous pressure facing the families of the miners and the people of Greymouth. We are thankful that technical expertise from around the country and around the world is focusing on the effort to bring the men out. A small snippet of hope occurred when a robot was sent into the mine to find out what the conditions were like and it captured new images including a miner’s helmet with the light still on. But in contrast we can imagine the utter disappointment that everybody at Pike River would have felt this morning that after the bore-hole was completed the gas samples were off the limit and it is still not safe to send in rescue teams. We are grateful that expertise from around the nation and around the world is contributing to the effort at Pike River. 
We think about the people who are fronting the efforts to launch the search and rescue of the miners: Pike River Coal chief executive Peter Whittall and the Tasman area police commander Superintendent Gary Knowles. These men who have behind them an army of experts and teams of search and rescue personnel are working with very anxious and distressed family members to keep them informed of progress. They also have to front up to the questions of the worldwide media every day asking why this happened whether it could have been stopped and what went wrong and why. Their No. 1 job right now is gathering data and coordinating the search and rescue efforts. I have been very impressed with their presence of mind in such gruelling circumstances—their expertise and professionalism is evident. We can have confidence in their leadership in such a crisis. 
The time will come for all the questions that are being asked to be answered. Undoubtedly there will be a full inquiry to discover the sequence of events that led to the explosion in the Pike River coalmine and to find out why those events occurred. But right now we are focused on the most critical matter of being able to launch that search and rescue team at the moment it is deemed safe for those in the mine and for those seeking to save them. It is very important to support the families friends and community during this time. 
Recently I was speaking to a group of leaders in the energy exploration sector. There is a sense of affinity amongst prospectors and miners. These people work incredibly hard in demanding situations to harvest the earth’s resources for the benefit of our way of life for all people. New Zealand has a long history of coalmining and an incident like this is the worst nightmare of those who work in the industry. 
Taranaki which is the energy province of New Zealand is the centre of New Zealand’s oil natural gas and petrochemical industries. Almost 90 percent of the sector’s total nationwide employment is based in the region which generates $740 million worth of gross national product. All of New Zealand’s producing oilfields and gasfields are located in the Taranaki Basin. They are predominantly located onshore but there are some significant basins offshore that require offshore processing platforms. On my visit to one of those offshore platforms I soon saw the teamwork amongst the men. One can soon see that they depend on each other and one can see the professionalism they employ in maintaining their safety standards. They are a rare breed just like the miners of the West Coast of the South Island.