Pike River Mine disaster
Mining accidentWikipedia
13
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7
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6
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Search complete. 13 mentions across 7 episodes found for "Pike River Mine disaster".
Sep 26, 2026
MelHOST
Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile.
JimHOST
On the 19th of November, 2010, the Pike River mine exploded at approximately 3.44pm. 2010, 16 years ago.
JimHOST
At the time of the explosion, 31 miners and contractors were located below ground.
JimHOST
The youngest, Joseph Dunbar, was on his first shift underground after celebrating his 17th birthday the previous day.
John CampbellHOST
And is that safe enough? All of this is considered in a significant new piece of analysis by economist Shama Beliakob for the Business Leaders Health and Safety Forum.
John CampbellHOST
Formed in 2010, the same year 29 men died in the Pike River mine workplace following numerous warnings.
John CampbellHOST
of a potential catastrophe.
John CampbellHOST
The Forum is a coalition of 440 businesses and governments, leaders with a stated commitment to improve workplace health and safety.
6 MINS LATER
Francois BartonGUEST
Well, I think in parts.
Francois BartonGUEST
I think there's a collective, I know, commitment from government agencies and certainly from organisations like my own around how can we support and help better align those pieces.
Francois BartonGUEST
And if you talk about Pike River, you know, the great thing about the tragedy of that event, but the galvanising opportunity was there was a huge consensus, both across Parliament, business, workers, unions, government, around how we needed to align.
Francois BartonGUEST
And I think the challenge we've got in New Zealand, and it's not just in health and safety, you can think about a whole range of other portfolio areas, we just lose interest.
Lisa OwenHOST
South Island correspondent Timothy Brown reports in the second story of a two-part series.
Timothy BrownCORRESPONDENT
Since John Key's government overhauled workplace health and safety in the wake of the Pike River mine disaster, more than 700 people have gone to work and haven't come home.
Timothy BrownCORRESPONDENT
Daria McTeer's brother, Ethan, was one of them.
Daria McTeerSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
Everybody has the right to go to work and come home safe, but there needs to be people enforcing that and making sure that these workplaces are safe and upholding these regulations.
Timothy BrownCORRESPONDENT
And WorkSafe didn't know until it was too late.
Timothy BrownCORRESPONDENT
There have been more than 700 work-related deaths in the past decade despite John Key's government overhauling workplace health and safety laws following the Pike River mine disaster.
speaker_5SOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
Too many of our men or getting killed at work.
speaker_5SOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
Too many.
Todd ZainerHOST
Camilla Belich says the Government's not listened to an overwhelming number of public submissions calling for rough sleeping to be removed from the legislation.
Todd ZainerHOST
Health and safety campaigner Sonia Rockhouse, whose son was killed in the Pike River mine disaster, says it's fantastic Labour's promising to introduce a corporate homicide offence if it's elected.
Todd ZainerHOST
The law would carry a punishment of life imprisonment for individuals or a fine of up to $10 million for companies.
Todd ZainerHOST
Sonia Rockhouse has been long campaigning for the change.
John MacDonaldHOST
And you know what I say? About time.
John MacDonaldHOST
Because even though our health and safety laws have been beefed up after Pike River, the punishments dished out generally have not kept up with that intention, have they? And Labour wants to change that.
John MacDonaldHOST
Good on it.
John MacDonaldHOST
The party's workplace relations and safety spokesperson, Jan Tinetti, she says even though New Zealand has one of the highest rates of workplace deaths in the developed world, despite that, employers can't be held as accountable as they should be.
John MacDonaldHOST
And she says Labour wants to deliver what the Pike River families have been calling for for years, which is the ability to charge employers with homicide.
John MacDonaldHOST
Don't dick around.
John MacDonaldHOST
Throw the book at them.
John MacDonaldHOST
Now, Sonia Rockhouse, who I mentioned before, her son Ben was killed at Pike River.
John GerritsenCORRESPONDENT
Māori children had the highest rate of transients at 5.8 per 1,000 and accounted for just over half of last year's transient children.
Christina ParaskosHOST
Health and safety campaigner Sonia Rockhouse, whose son was killed in the Pike River mine disaster, says it's fantastic the New Zealand Labour Party is promising to introduce a corporate homicide offence if it's elected.
Christina ParaskosHOST
The law would carry a punishment of life imprisonment for individuals or a fine of up to 10 million New Zealand dollars for companies.
Christina ParaskosHOST
Sonia Rockhouse has long been campaigning for the charge.