'It means so much' - Pike River families reflect on today's 'huge, huge milestone'

October 31, 2018

"It's quite a huge moment," Pike Family Reference Group Anna Osborne told Breakfast today.

With the Pike River Agency expected to hand over its final re-entry plan to the Government today, the families of the victims are reflecting on the "huge, huge milestone" that came after an intense eight-year battle with those in power.

"It means so much to the families," Anna Osborne of the Pike Family Reference Group told Breakfast today from Greymouth.

"To have an agency in the Government that actually wants to include the families in the process as well has been massive for the families," she said. "Transparency is huge.

"We've been invited to all the meetings and really been kept up to speed with everything, so for the families it's a totally different feel to how we've been treated in the past."

Ms Osborne, the widow of Pike river miner Milton Osborne, said the families don't have a preference out of the three re-entry options available to Pike Recovery Minister Andrew Little.

The agency has been working alongside experts to establish the safest re-entry of the tunnel into the West Coast mine.

"It's not really our field of work," she said. "It's up to the experts to choose, and they have."

But in the course of sitting in on the numerous workshops, Ms Osborne said she knows there are no "showstoppers" among the three options that would put health and safety of the recovery team in jeopardy.

She said she believes the mine could be ready for re-entry sometime between July and September.

"It's quite a huge moment," Ms Osborne added. "It's been eight years in the making. And to be involved in this and to see it come to fruition and to hopefully get a decision in the not too distant future is quite massive compared to only a year and a half ago, when there was no re-entry going to happen.

"We've actually achieved quite a bit. And for the families it's a huge, huge milestone."

John Campbell reports from the West Coast where he's had exclusive access to the Pike River recovery team who are close to a decision on whether a safe re-entry will go ahead.

There were moments during the battle when Ms Osborne said she though re-entry was going to be impossible, based on what the families were being told. She lauded the families who adamantly demanded a closer look.

"If it wasn't for the hard work of a lot of the families to get it to where it is today, this wouldn't have happened," she said. "We would have had a concrete plug at the portal there entombing all our men. If you want something, you have to go out and get it and fight for what you believe in."

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