Headline: Law would have ensured some accountability
Police would have had a strong legal foundation to mount a prosecution over the 29 deaths at Pike River had New Zealand had a corporate manslaughter law, says Labour MP Andrew Little.
The police have advised families of the miners killed in the mine tragedy that they could not prosecute for manslaughter because of the evidence needed to succeed with the charge.
They also could not prosecute for criminal negligence because charges former CEO, Peter Whittall, is already facing under the Health and Safety in Employment Act meant he would be tried for the same thing twice, a breach of the double jeopardy principle.
“The benefit of a dedicated law on corporate manslaughter is that the police wouldn’t have to tie the cause of the deaths to the specific actions of individual people but could look at aggregate failures by a number of people to make a charge stick,” said Andrew Little, who has a corporate manslaughter Bill in the ballot for parliamentary member’s Bills.
“The charge of corporate manslaughter focuses on a high level of negligence at the board and senior management level and means failures in corporate culture can be called to account.
“There seems little question that the board of Pike River Coal took a cavalier attitude to health and safety, with some in management plainly negligent when it came to responding to the dozens of reports of health and safety breaches.
“Under my Bill, once a charge is made out then penalties on the company include a significant fine and the possibility of directors serving a prison sentence.
“In the Pike River case, where the company has no money to pay a fine, it would mean at least some accountability.”
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