PERTH (miningweekly.com) – An independent report into the 2010 Pike River mine explosion, in New Zealand, which claimed the lives of 29 workers, has failed to assign blame for the incident, instead saying a number of shortcomings from all participants had resulted in the incident.

The report found that there were a number of actions, or inactions, on the part of the Department of Labour (DoL) and the Ministry of Economic Development (MED) that could have contributed to the tragedy.

“In relation to the MED’s assessment and monitoring of Pike’s mining permit, we consider that those functions were discharged in a light-handed and perfunctory way. There existed the possibility within the regime for officials to have taken a more careful, deliberate and searching approach with Pike,” the report stated.

It added that concerns about the company’s level of geological knowledge of the area, and the growing pressure on it from repeated delays in its work programme, could have been surfaced.

The report also suggested that officials within the government departments were acting with the aim of administering to the applications as quickly and efficiently as possible, and added that the regime in place was complex and ambiguous, with limited information required from applicants and permit holders.

“There are few individuals who had any responsibility for assessing or monitoring Pike’s mining permit still in the employ of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE). Even if there had been, the approach taken and the systemic issues we have identified mean that we would do not recommend any employment action be commenced against those individuals,” the report said.

The MBIE’s CEO David Smol said this week that, like the Royal Commission report, the independent report was sobering as to the breadth of systems failure.

“The performance of the former departments was not acceptable. These are serious lessons for the public service and other regulators and enforcement agencies,” he added.

“As the investigators say, an effective health and safety regulator must have a culture that focuses on doing everything it can to reduce the risk of harm and danger to New Zealanders rather than being focused on reputational and organisational risk.

“I accept the findings and apologise again to the Pike River families for these failures. More work will be done in response to this investigation, in addition to the extensive work already under way to respond to the Pike River tragedy and the report of the Royal Commission,” Smol said.

New Zealand’s opposition, however, has slammed the report, saying it was of no comfort to the families of those who lost their lives.

“The report prepared for MBIE says the Department of Labour’s performance as health and safety regulator was ineffectual and dysfunctional. So being told no individuals were at fault will be a tough pill to swallow,” said Labour MP Damien O’Conner.

“What this report shows is the folly of a hands-off approach to the mining sector, and health and safety in particular. The market cannot be left to its own devices when lives are at stake.”

Fellow Labour MP Darien Fenton noted that the report confirmed what the families and the country already knew – that the DoL and government failed the mine workers at Pike.

“The light-handed approach to regulation of mining was a tragic mistake, and must be urgently addressed. The government needs to fast-track the implementation of the Royal Commission’s recommendations – including the establishment of a dedicated health and safety regulator.

“Instead, government is dragging the chain. It plans to take nearly a year to get the new health and safety structure in place. In the meantime, workers are left relying on an under-resourced system where restructuring and job losses have become the norm. That is just reckless,” Fenton said.