English wants Pike River out of the headlines in election year

Written By: - Date published: 10:58 am, February 17th, 2017 - 4 comments
Categories: bill english, disaster - Tags: ,

First sign of progress for the Pike River families – Pike River mine to remain unsealed, Prime Minister Bill English tells families

Pike River victims’ families say the Government’s commitment to leave the coal mine unsealed and inspect it with drone technology falls short of their requests, but is still “very positive”.

Prime Minister Bill English agreed today to put a halt to permanent sealing of the mine on the South Island’s West Coast following talks with the families at Parliament.

English refused to grant their request to re-enter the mine’s drift but agreed to look into sending a drone or other unmanned technology into the mine to investigate further.

The families’ spokesman Bernie Monk said the meeting at the Beehive was “very positive” and that they had made more progress with English than they had under previous Prime Minister John Key.

Can English be trusted?

But Anna Osborne, who lost her husband Milton in the 2010 incident, said English could have gone further. She described his commitments as “baby steps”.

“He’s not committed to giving the families any real reassurance,” she said.

English wants Pike River out of the headlines in election year. Let’s hope he’s not deliberately stringing along the Pike River families with false hope.

4 comments on “English wants Pike River out of the headlines in election year ”

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  1. shorts 1
    17 February 2017 at 11:41 am

    I don’t see this as progress at all – just a means to as your headline says get the story out of the media for the time being

    After 13 weeks of blocking the road 24/7 they get a yeah nah from English – 13 weeks, now thats a headline…

  2. Sabine 2
    17 February 2017 at 12:30 pm

    that’s good tho in my mind. Keeping the 29 out of our minds will leave lots of space for the plight of the homeless in the coming winter.

    No matter what the double dipper does there are no good news coming towards him.
    The housing crisis is not going away.
    The unemployment rate will go up – especially as this summer season is just plain shite.
    The number of people living precariously will go up.
    And the Pike River 29 and their families will also not go away.

    maybe he should pull a John Key and give the country a weeks notice to let that Westy/South Islander/whaterverisneeded Pull’s all the Bennefits Paula Bennett run the show. You know, just for shits n giggles.

  3. Tamati Tautuhi 3
    17 February 2017 at 3:23 pm

    Probably a lot of things he wants out of the news this year, MSM will make sure they smooth the waters. Evidently the Peter Thiel deal made the front page of the Financial Times in London?

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