Written By: - Date published: 6:45 am, January 17th, 2011 - 205 comments
You would think that, to reassure the families and satisfy critics, the government would have released detailed technical analysis showing why re-entering Pike River will never be possible. Instead, we got vague, contradictory statements only after the media pressed Key for answers. Now, a mining expert has confirmed the mine’s atmosphere is stable and can be made breathable cheaply.
Written By: - Date published: 9:15 am, January 15th, 2011 - 113 comments
Like smiling and waving, frowning and looking sombre, is easy. But satisfying the expectations you create can be hard. This is where Key consistently fails. He has failed again over Pike River. The sudden and inadequately explained end to the recovery operation is bad enough. Lying about the promises he made is gravely insulting.
Written By: - Date published: 9:22 pm, January 6th, 2011 - 43 comments
I never, ever thought I would say this but there’s a very good article in Investigate this week. It’s about the Pike River disaster. With methane sensors in place, alarms should have gone off well before the gas reached combustible level. Investigate reveals the sensors may have been disabled by workers who would lose pay if they had to stop work.
Written By: - Date published: 11:47 pm, December 16th, 2010 - 32 comments
It’s a tough Christmas for far too many Kiwis. Poverty is up, wages are down. 350,000 Kiwis are jobless or underemployed. The job losses are still coming. The rich got tax cuts, 70% got nothing. Drought is spreading. Thousands of Cantabrians face an uncertain future. Meanwhile, the Nats cynically exploit disaster to advance their agenda.
Written By: - Date published: 8:48 am, December 15th, 2010 - 34 comments
As a government and as a country we honoured the Pike River dead, as was right and proper. But now the hard part starts. What are we going to do for the Pike River survivors? The families who lost loved ones. The fellow workers who have now lost their livelihood.
Written By: - Date published: 9:22 am, December 9th, 2010 - 7 comments
The Commissioner for the Environment’s “Lignite and Climate Change: The High Cost of Low Grade Coal” has been released today. Its release had been postponed because of concerns that it would become entangled with reports concerning the Pike River Mine disaster.
Written By: - Date published: 12:31 pm, December 6th, 2010 - 39 comments
The modern urge to label leaders who perform adequately during an emergency as ‘heroes’ astounds me. Particularly in the case of Pike River. Peter Whitall is a boss who just had 29 workers die on his work-site. While reserving judgment on his blame for that, I’m not going to call him a hero for doing a decent job for the cameras.
Written By: - Date published: 9:59 am, December 5th, 2010 - 63 comments
This piece by Matt McCarten has already generated some discussion on Open Mike. Here are extracts, or click through for the full article. Matt pulls no punches…
Written By: - Date published: 10:27 am, December 4th, 2010 - 74 comments
Pike River Coal has been pushing for access to investigation interviews.
This kind of interference needs to be stopped before the investigation is compromised.
Written By: - Date published: 8:09 am, December 2nd, 2010 - 9 comments
PM John Key has called for two minutes of national silence today at 2pm, to remember the 29 miners who lost their lives at Pike River.
Written By: - Date published: 11:15 am, November 29th, 2010 - 61 comments
It’s dismaying to see a few rightwing commentators using the Pike River disaster to attack restrictions on mining in national parks. The claims are baseless and crassly opportunistic. One expects the like of Matthew Hooton, Whaleoil, and Paul Holmes to try to score political points off tragedy but I thought better of Fran O’Sullivan.
Written By: - Date published: 11:27 am, November 27th, 2010 - 70 comments
As the public and private mourning for the Pike River 29 continues, focus will begin to shift to how this event occurred with no less than five inquires soon to begin. John Armstrong has a very good article on the issues that will be in the spotlight. This is not about political point-scoring, it’s about preventing future tragedies. I ask for comments to be in that vein.
Written By: - Date published: 3:39 pm, November 26th, 2010 - 13 comments
Pike River chief executive Peter Whittall has called on the country to mark one week since the West Coast mine exploded with a moment’s silence at 3.44pm today, in remembrance of the 29 men who died
Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, November 25th, 2010 - 8 comments
It’s an incredibly sad day for NZ. Today the country mourns for the 29 miners who have lost their lives after a second explosion at the Pike River mine. Our thoughts are now with the families, the communities, and the people of the Coast. The Standard will keep its half mast headlined all day today. Anyone wishing to donate to help the families of the miners, the details are here.
Written By: - Date published: 5:01 pm, November 24th, 2010 - 113 comments
There has been a second explosion at the Pike River mine.
“Superintendent Gary Knowles told the Herald the miners couldn’t have survived a blast of that magnitude, which occurred at 2.37pm. Family members were seen crying as they left a police briefing a short time ago.”
My heart goes out to the families.
Written By: - Date published: 11:42 am, November 22nd, 2010 - 20 comments
It can only be an unthinkably tough time for all Pike River miners, their families, and the communities on the Coast. I’m sure I speak for all The Standard writers and contributors when I say that our thoughts are with them. Despite all the dire news so far three days after the explosion, we simply don’t have the full story till the rescue team get down there and try to bring these guys back to the surface. Till then, we can only hold on and hope.
Written By: - Date published: 5:02 pm, November 20th, 2010 - 37 comments
The news coming out from the Pike River mine disaster is not sounding good. Spare a thought tonight for the miners and their families.
Written By: - Date published: 8:08 pm, November 19th, 2010 - 41 comments
I’ve just heard about the disaster at Pike River coal mine on the West Coast. [Updated] 29 miners are trapped 1500m below ground by a massive explosion. Five have made it out with moderate injuries. Obviously, there’s big concern for the lives of the missing workers. More details as they come – our thoughts are with their families.
Written By: - Date published: 12:00 pm, November 18th, 2010 - 15 comments
Bill English and brother Conner, CEO of Federated Farmers, share a vision for the world. It’s one where the environment and workers are exploited to the hilt in the name of ‘growth’ and the fruits of that ‘growth’ flow to a privileged elite (like the Englishes). Yesterday rich-boy Conner chided the rest of us with a speech titled “There is no free lunch”
Written By: - Date published: 2:12 pm, October 17th, 2010 - 62 comments
In his last column Garth George laments how foods he regularly enjoyed in his childhood (1870s?) are now priced beyond the reach of most New Zealanders. It’s easy to dismiss the complaints of an old man about prices these days but there’s a deeper story: with population growth and resource depletion, there increasingly isn’t enough to go around.
Written By: - Date published: 11:45 am, October 7th, 2010 - 7 comments
A tailings dam in Hungary has burst. Toxic sludge over 16 square miles has killed four. If the sludge, laden with heavy metals and radioactive elements, makes it into waterways including the Danube the disaster will magnify. If Brownlee had his way, our countryside would be covered in tailings dams as miners plunder our national parks.
Written By: - Date published: 10:23 am, September 23rd, 2010 - 22 comments
Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Jan Wright has released her Mining the Conservation Estate report. Among other important points,it asks what we asked during the Schedule 4 fight: Why do miners get to mine on conservation estate without paying a lease? No private land owner would give away their land like that.
Written By: - Date published: 12:10 pm, September 9th, 2010 - 13 comments
The unilateral opening up of our ancestral lands and seas to drilling and mining by this Government is the most significant threat to the survival of our peoples and our way of life we have experienced in this generation. The big question in light of this the struggle is where are the Maori Party?
Written By: - Date published: 11:34 am, July 23rd, 2010 - 5 comments
Another gem from Tom Scott.
Written By: - Date published: 2:28 pm, July 20th, 2010 - 47 comments
Well done Kiwis! A rousing show of solidarity and strength has forced the Nats to back down from their plans to mine Schedule 4 land. We have preserved some of the most precious places in our country for future generations. This is a straight craven backdown driven by Key’s relentless need to remain Mr Popular. But whatever the reason – its the right result!
Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, July 20th, 2010 - 22 comments
Predictions abound that the Government are today to announce a backdown on plans to mine Schedule 4 land..
Written By: - Date published: 10:28 am, July 19th, 2010 - 17 comments
Today we should find out the fate of Schedule 4 – the precious Department of Conservation land that Key put up for mining. RNZ reports that the Cabinet are looking at the proposal today…
Written By: - Date published: 10:30 am, July 6th, 2010 - 9 comments
There are a lot of risks New Zealand will face when more deeper water off-shore oil exploration goes ahead. The more you look, the greater the risks appear. Brownlee and the crazies at the MED don’t look like they know what a risk assessment is. Consequently they’re getting screwed. Perhaps they should read Gordon Campbell…
Written By: - Date published: 3:15 pm, July 2nd, 2010 - 8 comments
With respect to his intention to allow Brazillian oil giant Petrobras to drill offshore in the Raukumara Basin, John Key says that “strong environmental standards” will be in place. I have a question.
Written By: - Date published: 12:16 pm, June 30th, 2010 - 17 comments
Every night before they go to sleep, good little Labour and Green spin doctors pray for another headline involving Gerry Brownlee. The guy has an amazing tin ear for public opinion. He’s had 50,000 people march against his mining plans and, now, he’s made a Treaty breach over the one area of foreshore and seabed that was settled. Gerry, you’re a godsend.
Written By: - Date published: 10:52 pm, June 29th, 2010 - 32 comments
Our mineral wealth is a one-off endowment that belongs to all of us. If we let someone dig it up, it’s gone forever. We shouldn’t let our most precious environments be mined and when we do allow mining we need to get the most for it. It’s not good enough that the mining industry gets away with paying just $70 million in royalties for digging up $6 billion of minerals.
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