18 Jan 2017

Labour would remove liability for Pike River re-entry

4:47 pm on 18 January 2017

Labour leader Andrew Little plans to table a bill in Parliament removing liability from the directors of Solid Energy so that the Pike River Mine can be re-entered.

The entrance to the Pike River Mine (21 November 2010)

The Pike River Mine on 21 November 2010: The victims' families want the mine re-entered to recover their loved ones' bodies. Photo: AFP

Mr Little today visited the picket line on the road to the mine and met some of the families of the 29 men who died there six years ago.

He said the government claimed the mine could not be re-entered because of the liability risk, so on the first day of the new parliamentary year he would seek leave to table his bill.

That would exonerate Solid Energy's directors from being held liable for any harm to people taking part in the mine re-entry, he said.

Mr Little said the victims' families were promised everything that could be done to recover their loved ones' bodies would be done, and the government needed to follow through on that.

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