Do you still want to talk about Pike River?

I have been studiously avoiding the topic of late, ever since the families put the road block in and sent their advocates to Wellington to lobby for entry into the mine.

I’ve been of the opinion that sympathy had been on the wane for the families. Not the sympathy for their loss of course, that will last forever. It was an unspeakable tragedy. But sympathy for the re-entry and the debate that seems to go round and round and round. I’ve heard and read too many people saying it’s time to move on. Move on is the worst thing you can say to the families. They hate that phrase. They’ve told me that. For them it is impossible to move on from their loss and telling them to move on is offensive.

So I’ve avoided speaking about it because everytime someone tells them to move on it is a dagger in their heart.

But their persistence has finally forced politicians to wade once more into the debate. I had hoped it would remain a private issue between the government and the families but statements from Labour and the publicity stunt pulled by Winston Peters yesterday have pushed it back into conversation.

So where are we at? The families have commissioned a report that says it’s safe to re-enter the drift. The drift is the 2.3 kilometre uphill tunnel that provides access to the working mine.  They want to recover bodies because for many that is an important part of grieving and can’t be criticised.  They’re also hoping they can find evidence that some of their men tried to escape. That’s totally a matter of speculation. The 2 men in the drift were the 2 that got out.  They’re also hoping it may provide more clues as to why the thing happened. They say it’s a crime scene. Based on all that Winston Peters says he’s up for being the first man in.  What a stunt.  What naked poiliticking. I’m almost  tempted to demand he goes in today.

In terms of it being a crime scene I would have thought that’s obvious. We all know it was a crime. A crime for which no-one has served time.

It was a crime to go in in the first place. The geologists who studied it knew it was an extremely gassy seam and the only safe way to harvest it was open cast mining.  Something the department of Conservation would not allow so they came up with a palpably flawed option. It was a crime to have no secondary egress.  It was a crime not to follow up safety concerns. It was a crime to have decommissioned the safe haven. It was a moral crime to give the families hope in the first days of the disaster. I don’t need anymore evidence of crime.

But it’s turned into a battle between the government’s experts and the families. The government’s sure they’re right and they have the ultimate accountability for re-entry team safety. The families are sure they’re wrong. So now Labour wants an independent inquiry into the safety of re-entry with local man Damien O’Connor seeing political gain from family support.

So do we need a third inquiry? Or do we believe in the government’s assertions or do we agree with the families who have so much skin in the game?

For all who wish the issue would go away I say it won’t but the sooner a peace is negotiated the better.