Pike River: MPs in show of unity over tragedy

Kevin Hague. Photo / Mark Mitchell

If any sign was needed that tragedy transcends even strongly felt politics, it came in Parliament yesterday when Green Party MP Kevin Hague praised the mining chief executive whose face has guided the country through the Pike River disaster.

The West Coast-based MP said he knew Pike River chief executive Peter Whittall personally but wanted to thank him publicly and pass on the Green Party's "thanks, enormous sympathy but also our tremendous respect for the integrity, responsibility and compassion he has unfailingly shown".

Mr Hague paid his tribute during a sombre day in Parliament, during which MPs from each party expressed sorrow at the tragedy and praised those involved in rescue attempts. It adjourned just half an hour after it began out of respect for the miners.

It ended with the rare show of MPs standing, led by the Maori Party's Te Ururoa Flavell, to sing Whakaaria Mai together before a minute's silence.

An emotional deputy Prime Minister Bill English pledged support for the families left behind.

"It is important in particular that the children who have lost their fathers will remember them with pride and know that their loss was felt by a nation."

He said the miners were "ordinary people who died in extraordinary and horrible circumstances".

"These are men whose names we didn't know but we instinctively recognise their qualities, collectively, as the best of ours."

Labour deputy leader Annette King said New Zealanders heard of tragedies overseas almost every day.

"We feel sad at their loss and shake our heads at the enormity of the tragedies, but nothing hurts like the death of your own."

Ms King said the West Coast was populated by stoic, strong people.

Other MPs also spoke of the future as inquiries into the explosions and questions about the fate of Pike River begin.

Act leader Rodney Hide said New Zealanders would continue to support Mr Whittall in the weeks ahead as he went through the difficult job of trying to ensure Pike River Coal remained on the West Coast, saving the jobs of miners.

He said for West Coasters, mining was not simply a livelihood, it was a tradition and a way of life.

Progressives leader Jim Anderton said the best possible tribute to the dead miners would be a careful examination of safety measures before any more miners were put at risk.

"I refuse to accept that any of the deaths are a necessary cost of mining ... How many more deaths must we experience in this industry before we ask some very serious questions about the viability of this type of mine?"

In Australia, the Federal Parliament also marked the deaths of the 29 miners. Prime Minister Julia Gillard moved a condolence motion to express sympathy for families and New Zealand in Parliament's lower house, saying it was "an awful event pressing on a small place".