Hague Kevin: General Debate 
Hague Kevin: General Debate 
[Volume:674;Page:20269] 
KEVIN HAGUE (Green) 
: 
 In the 1980s and 1990s New Zealand experienced a wave of change underpinned by the boneheaded idea that if Government took a hands-off attitude towards more or less everything free-market competition between unregulated companies would somehow magically produce the best outcomes for everyone. The theory was applied not only to goods and services but also to whole industries and areas of core public services such as electricity generation health and education. One of the casualties of this enthusiasm for deregulation was leaky homes. Ordinary people became the victims of corner-cutting and butt-covering by all those who could now get away with it. The same thing happened with finance companies and another casualty has been safety in underground mines. 
In 1992 the Government threw away the prescriptive mine safety rules that had been built up by the experience of many years underground. These rules were eventually replaced by requirements that mining companies take those safety measures that they found to be “practicable”. The idea of practicability has embedded in it the idea of affordability because a company that cannot afford a particular safety measure will find it not to be practicable with the result being that different mines end up with different safety standards. 
At the same time the triangle of safety—where companies workers and the Government all have appointees with particular responsibility for ensuring safety—was demolished by the abolition first of all of check inspectors and then by the dismantling of the Government’s mines inspectorate. Thus the National Government in the 1990s first of all radically weakened the rules for underground mine safety then dismantled the structures to monitor and enforce compliance. Sadly none of these changes were reversed by Labour in its 9 years of Government. Throughout all that time experts warned that that erosion of safety would result in the loss of life. It did so in 2006 and again last year. 
From my kitchen window I look out at the Paparoas where 29 men still lie. Every day that I am home I am reminded of my commitment that those men’s remains be brought back to their families that the investigation of their deaths sees justice done and that systems are reconstructed to protect all other underground miners from avoidable risk. 
I sat in on several days of the Royal Commission on the Pike River Coal Mine Tragedy during the first phase. The royal commission heard about some of this and about some of the practical implications. Evidence was given about woeful gas management in the Pike River mine a chief executive officer who had not seen the plan of the mine and concerns from the chief executive officer about inexperienced and unqualified staff. The royal commission also heard about the astonishing lack of provision for escape from the mine with Mines Rescue having warned the company that the emergency exit was effectively unusable in a fire and men were encouraged instead to use the fresh air base in the mine which had a capacity of just 20 men. It also heard concerns from Pike River Coal that New Zealand mine safety standards fall well short of their Australian counterparts and about the company’s concern that New Zealand had just two mines inspectors for the entire country with that number now down to one. The royal commission also heard the concern that a recently appointed inspector with electrical safety responsibility in mines had no experience of electrical work in underground mines. 
It is not good enough. We need change we need it now and John Key’s Government must step up to the plate and deliver it either by itself or in collaboration with other parties. The Green Party stands ready to play our part in improving mine safety right now. There is no case to wait for the royal commission to report as men go underground every day right now into environments that we know are not as safe as they could and should be.