nz resources.com....
Louthean today said he had been "astounded" police were in charge and making it known what could and could not happen.
"Discussing this with Australian mining colleagues, their view was stronger, suggesting it may hinder saving lives," he said.
Local police played a highly commendable role with the Greymouth community, "but the practice of going back to Wellington for vetting and approval for a critical mine rescue shows New Zealand is a few bricks short of a wall in terms of saving the lives of miners or retrieving their bodies".
In Australia all the decisions are made by search rescue leaders and the inspectors of mines.
If recommendations made by the Royal Commission inquiring into the disaster gave more power to the police search and rescue organisation in Wellington, they might increase the danger to any future miners in peril, he said.
"Greater power may be vested in Wellington bureaucracies that should be listening to people skilled in mine rescues and retrievals, not dictating to them," he said.
The New Zealand mining industry and the mining union need to make compelling submissions," said Louthean, who called on Energy Minister Gerry Brownlee "to support the giving back of rescue powers to mining industry".
The effect of an OIC of an operation who admits to co-relating expert advice on a situation he doesn't understand is much like a novice taking command of a distressed vessel and assuming the role of Captain during a disaster. I can't see the justification for it, additionally the obvious public disquiet points to a perception of a disjointed chain of command from which questions, unfortunately will always remain. I am pleased that the 'rescue-recovery' is part of the Commission of Inquiry and I have no reservations that Superintendent Gary Knowles can be blamed in anyway. He was a man trying to do his utmost in a situation where his own superiors, right through to Government Ministers were prepared to sit on the fence to see what happened.
I have a friend who got his mine manager's certificate at the age of 26 having already had a decade of experience underground. His view is that had he been in the role of the commanding police at Pike River he would have, by necessity assumed a backup role, containing the scene and so forth and promoting control to the experience and knowledge of experts in the field. On the other hand, as a miner of international experience himself, he fully appreciated the work face and disaster that would have been before him if he had been present and said he would have been unforgiving of a convoluted chain of command while precious time passed in what appears to have been a situation with elements of pr involved.
Perhaps this is a cultural thing. Miners operate under a mining paradigm, police under a policing paradigm. And that's what Knowles was doing: policing - coordinating, putting safety first, deciding what the public (and the 'victims' - the families - needed to know and when. But whereas the police have experts in normal rescue operations who actually understand and are integrated into the culture of, say, adventure recreation; they don't have mining experts in the police. Wrong paradigm? Perhaps this is something that needed to be "by miners, for miners"?
ReplyDeleteIn response to Spectator.
ReplyDeleteI think what you say is right and identifies a cause of unease about the administration of the disaster. The control of a plane is not taken from a pilot during an emergency, or from a surgeon operating when power and perhaps back up power fails, or from the Captain of a floundering ship, in all those situations those endangered are in the hands of the person or person most able to help them, the most qualified and the most aware of the situation.
I see that unfortunately a focus is falling on a perception of who was in control and I feel that is tragic, a tragedy within a tragedy. Broad and Judith Collins commending Knowles was just par for the course. And another officer defended him as not being a 'country' cop. The very word 'country cop' is offensive and to be defended as not being one is also offensive, surely where a person lives or comes from is immaterial and irrelevant when 29 men are lost underground no one should want for more that being assured that the right man is in charge - a person highly capable in a specialised task supported in what ever ways he or she needs.
I have few criticisms of Knowles, I feel he was let down from higher levels where more consideration rather than 'hope' should have been tasked when constructing control of the operation, unfortunately however the appearance of 'I'm in control, it's me' detracted from, at least to me, confidence in that all that could be done was being done by the right people.