Solid Energy, the state-owned coal miner, has told the Pike River commission of inquiry New Zealand should contract out its mine safety inspection services to Queensland, and that regulations here should mirror those in the eastern Australian state.
Solid Energy, the state-owned coal miner, has told the Pike River commission of inquiry New Zealand should contract out its mine safety inspection services to Queensland, and that regulations here should mirror those in the eastern Australian state.
The proposal comes in its final submission to the inquiry, which is in the final stages of an investigation into the mine explosions that killed 29 miners in November 2010 at the Pike River underground coal mine.
“We believe the fundamental underpinning of New Zealand’s workplace health and safety regime – that it is the employer’s responsibility to do everything they practicably can to ensure the safety of everyone at their sites – is sound and that mining should continue to operate within that general framework,” said Solid Energy chief executive Don Elder.
“Beneath that, the specific regulations governing underground mining can be improved and that the best, most sustainable, way of doing this is to broadly align our national framework with that of Queensland.”
New Zealand had a small mining industry by world standards and would find it both difficult and expensive to provide all mine safety services, while the Queensland mine safety inspectorate service was at the forefront of the much larger Australian mining industry.
However, Solid Energy continues to oppose a mandatory role for a union-appointed worker representative – a feature of systems applying in Australia, which create a three-pronged approach involving management, a workforce representative, and the regulator.
“Solid Energy’s opinion – that the check inspector system, on balance, brings more negatives than positives – has not changed and no doubt the trade union view also will not have changed,” he said. “We believe there are numerous ways to foster strong input to safety from everyone in an operation.”
