Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Commissioners chosen for inquiry into mine disaster

Updated at 5:22 pm on 13 December 2010

Prime Minister John Key has named the two commissioners who will sit on the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Pike River Coal mine disaster.

Twenty-nine workers died after explosions which began on 19 November at the West Coast mine near Greymouth.

David Henry is a former head of the Electoral Commission and a former Inland Revenue Commissioner.

Stewart Bell is presently the Mine and Safety Health Commissioner with the Queensland state government in Australia.

The Royal Commission will be chaired by Justice Graham Panckhurst, a sitting High Court judge.

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