The High Court judge who will head the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Pike River mine tragedy will be named later today, Prime Minister John Key says.Two other high level people would also appointed to the inquiry, one possibly an international expe
The High Court judge who will head the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Pike River mine tragedy will be named later today, Prime Minister John Key says.
Two other high level people would also appointed to the inquiry, one possibly an international expert. Mr Key would announce the appointments after Cabinet met today.
"They'll be able to have broad terms of reference to give the answers that both the families and New Zealanders want," Mr Key told TVNZ's Breakfast show.
The inquiry would need to find out what happened at Pike River, whose responsibility it was, whether it could have been avoided and if there were systemic problems with implications for other underground mines.
A Royal Commission of Inquiry was only slightly different to a regular Commission of Inquiry; the latter was held into Cave Creek, while the former was made after Erebus.
"I felt because of the 29 people that have lost their lives, those families, the impact on the community and the wider impact on New Zealand, we just wanted to give it the gravitas it deserved, which is a Royal Commission," Mr Key said.
There was no reason to believe there were systemic problems with underground mines and there were others operating in the West Coast.
There was always a degree of risk involved with coal mining but that was different to having an unsafe workplace, Mr Key told Newstalk ZB.
"It's obviously a big employer and people would like to see those jobs retained if that's possible."
Alongside the Royal Commission, police, the Coroner's office, Department of Labour and the mine would carry out their own inquiries.
Green Party co-leader Russel Norman said an independent representative of the workers should be on the commission team.
"For the sake of everyone involved, and to ensure that we get to the bottom of the cause of the explosion, the inquiry needs to have maximum credibility and legitimacy," he said.
The Engineering, Printing&Manufacturing Union (EPMU) national secretary Andrew Little welcomed Mr Key's proposal.
"This is a huge disaster by any account and what we do in response will be scrutinised around the world, especially in the other Commonwealth countries whose nationals were among those killed."
As the trade union representing underground miners at Pike River and all other underground mines in New Zealand, the EPMU had started to assemble an international team of legal and technical experts and would do all it could to assist the inquiry, he said.
