Headline: Govt must release Pike legal documents
The Government must immediately release all correspondence between Crown lawyers, Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment staff, and Peter Whittal’s counsel after one of Mr Whittal’s lawyers revealed discussions over Pike River charges were started by the Government, Labour’s Justice spokesperson Andrew Little says.
Stacey Shortall of law firm Minter Ellison Rudd Watts said today that any suggestion it was Mr Whittal’s defence team that initiated discussions about the prosecution being resolved without trial is incorrect.
“The firm supports the release of correspondence between the parties.
“Stacey Shortall has taken a courageous position for a lawyer in supporting the release of the letters. In light of her revelations the Government should now release the documents as a matter of urgency.
“This was one of New Zealand’s worst workplace tragedies and even after a Royal Commission found serious fault with the operation of the mine, no one in control of the company has been personally called to account.
“The one attempt to bring a senior manager to book was stopped in its tracks in mysterious circumstances, and it’s time to shine a light on what happened.
“All correspondence, including memoranda filed with the court, should be released to ease the public anxiety that a tawdry deal was done,” says Andrew Little.
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re: PIKE RIVER
The workers also have a responsibility. At Pike River, miners union (EPMU and forerunner) failed in representing workers industrial health and safety interests – with pay and benefits the most basic of workers’ welfare interests (which of course includes monitoring performance by Dept. Labour of mining safety responsibilities). Basically, this is the fault of trade union membership who permitted a takeover of their union (and trade unions generally by people from the urban educated liberal elite who see themselves as being more a part of the “Labour Movement” than as trade union activists. This description appears to fit Andrew Little, miners union/EPMU General Secretary for 11 years (until he resigned to pursue the next stages of his labour movement political career – and perhaps also fits predecessor, Rex Jones) during which 11 time the rot set into mining safety – following the destruction of regulation by previous National Governments (left unremedied by the following Labour Government). Both Jones and Little found time to be President of the Labour Party at the same time as being General Secretary of the Union. Mr Little apparently was not likely to robustly challenge the industrial safety policy failures of Labour Government Ministers
of Labour and dereliction of duty by Dept. Labour chiefs.
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