13 Apr 2013

Lack of consquences over Pike disaster 'unsatisfactory'

7:50 am on 13 April 2013

A public law specialist says it is unsatisfactory that a report on the Pike River mine disaster blames systemic issues and that no one is being held accountable.

A report commissioned by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment says systemic failings by government departments may have contributed to the deaths of 29 men when the mine exploded.

Calls have since mounted for former Labour Department managers to be prosecuted over the disaster.

Lawyer Mai Chen told Radio New Zealand's Morning Report programme she is surprised there have been no implications given the deaths.

However Prime Minister John Key says there has already been a degree of accountability at government level, when Kate Wilkinson stepped down as Minister of Labour last year after the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the accident.

He says if the report had held an individual within the bureaucracy accountable it would have been an employment matter for the relevant chief executive, but the report made no such finding.