The Weekend Herald is offering a $5,000 reward for information to identify “the ‘original source’ of the $3.41 million” payment distributed among the families of 29 workers who died in the November 2010 Pike River mine disaster.
The payment had been made in December 2013 without the agreement of the families, and reportedly came from “an unnamed insurance company”. The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) took this “voluntary” payment into account when it dropped all 12 health and safety charges against former Pike River chief executive Peter Whittall.
In 2017, the Supreme Court ruled that the prosecution withdrawal in exchange for payments to the victims’ family had been unlawful, but charges against Whittall were never reinstated.
The notice offering a $5,000 reward for the source of the payment came from former criminal barrister Christopher Harder, who has been working with families of the Pike River mine disaster victims.
Harder said he had received anonymous information last week that the $3.41 million did not come Whittall’s insurer, as was claimed at the time.
Last year, the government permanently sealed the mine without conducting a manned exploration of the mine workings where the underground fan long suspected as the source of ignition of the first explosion was located. Only the drift, or entry tunnel, had been explored, Scoop reported.
Bernie Monk, father to one of the Pike River mine explosion victims, submitted questions regarding the investigations to the police under the Official Information Act. The police said they required until 21 July to provide a substantive response to the questions.
