Pike River: Inspector warned of explosion

The expert's report says that dismantling the safety regime meant mine safety was 'held together by a rubber band'. Photo / Supplied

A top mining inspector warned that New Zealand coal mines had been "thrown open" to the risk of a deadly explosion after politicians dismantled the industry's safety regime.

Billy Brazil, who was a respected mine inspector on the West Coast, lodged a public submission after the Coal Mines Act was repealed in the early 1990s.

The law change meant the country lost a mining-specific safety regime, entrusting police and Occupational Safety and Health instead. Experts said the industry had become largely self-regulating.

"The Government must act immediately to restore our legislation before another Kaitangata Disaster," Mr Brazil wrote in 1995, referring to a 1879 explosion that killed 34 miners.

"Miners in this country have good reason to ask of themselves as to whether the fortunes of the industry have been thrown open to the ever-present chance, or circumstance, in the lead-up to the next potential Kaitangata disaster."

Mr Brazil, who has since died, wrote that the previous mining legislation had been "literally written and paid for in blood".

"Due to the abolition of specific safety legislation, and the combination of bureaucratic incompetence, mine safety in New Zealand today is held together with a rubber band."

Les Neilson, who works at the Spring Creek coal mine, near Greymouth, and was formerly the head of its union, said detailed legislation covering a range of dangers had been replaced with a generic advisory to "take all practicable steps" to ensure safety.

"It was ludicrous. The politicians have known about that forever and we've tried for years to get proper legislation brought back in but both [political] parties are as guilty as the other," Mr Neilson said.

"They know all about it and you see some of them sitting on the stage at the remembrance service and there are some guilty-looking people sitting there as far as I'm concerned."

Local mining researcher Peter Ewen said the law change had turned back the clock 120 years.

"There was a false notion that mining accidents were a thing of the past, but clearly it's not," Mr Ewen said.

"They changed the law and now it's coming home to roost. Unfortunately, 29 juggers paid with their life ... Mining is a little bit different to the Watties factory in Napier."

Mine safety consultant Dave Feickert said one or two mine managers could not run a modern coal mine by themselves and guarantee the men's safety.

Labour MP Damien O'Connor, who is based in the West Coast, spoke out about the safety legislation in 1998 when two miners were killed in a methane burst.

Pike River's operations manager Doug White was formerly deputy chief inspector of coal mines in Queensland - a position that no longer has an equivalent in New Zealand.