'Vast majority' of Pike River inquiry to be on Coast

The families of the 29 men killed in the Pike River Coal mine 'desperately' want the entire Royal Commission of Inquiry into the tragedy held in Greymouth. Photo / Bay of Plenty Times

The "vast majority" of the Pike River Royal Commission Inquiry hearings into the tragedy which claimed the lives of 29 men will be held in Greymouth, the commission says.

The men died after a series of explosions in the West Coast Pike River Coal mine, the first on November 19.

Since then temperatures inside the mine have continued to fluctuate, frustrating those charged with retrieving the men's bodies.

The commission was responding to a call by a spokesman for the families of the 29 men to hold the entire inquiry in Greymouth.

The commission today said that while no final decisions have been made, it was planning for the majority of hearings to be held in Greymouth.

Chairman, Justice Graham Panckhurst, said he would ensure that affected families were consulted, along with interested parties, before any decisions were made about the location of hearings.

The commission's offices would be based in Christchurch, he said.

"The Royal Commission is in its early planning stages and we have only just begun to work through the logistics of scheduling hearings and venues."

Justice Panckhurst said the processes will be fair, transparent and accessible.

A spokesman for the commissioners earlier told NZPA the "vast majority" of the hearings would be held in Greymouth.

However, the commission could not rule out "rare instances" when Christchurch hearings might be necessary if people could not travel to Greymouth, such as international submitters, he said.

Pike River Families Committee spokesman, Bernie Monk, whose 23-year-old son, Michael, died in the mine, told NZPA the families "desperately" wanted the entire inquiry held in Greymouth.

"We are concerned. We desperately want it here... Some of the families - who have lost their main breadwinners - how can they be involved in the inquiry if they don't have it on the Coast?"

He knew of at least three families who wanted to attend the inquiry every day and travelling to Christchurch simply wasn't practical - financially or emotionally, he said.

The families' legal representation would also want to discuss matters with the families as the inquiry proceeded, he said.

"I just don't want us, as victims - and I regard the families as a victim - to be inconvenienced for the sake of people who might only be called on once, maybe twice."

The inquiry is scheduled to report no later than March 31, 2012, but Mr Monk said it would probably go for at least a year and a half and it was simply common sense to hold it in Greymouth.

Labour leader Phil Goff, deputy leader Annette King and Labour list MP Rick Barker visited Mr Monk earlier this week.

"They reassured us that the Labour Party would be lobbying for us to have the Royal Commission here and I really appreciated that."

Some of the families were struggling to cope, he said.

"Some of them are not coping at all. It's been a really sad time for them over this period...It's just been devastating for them, and I can put myself in that category too," he said.

The findings of the Royal Commission of inquiry were crucial.

"We need the truth and we need everything to come out, not just scrape the surface. We need to know why, how and when it happened," he said.

A spokesman for Attorney-General Christopher Finlayson today told NZPA the commission was independent of the Government and the location of the hearings was a matter for the commissioners to decide.

- NZPA