Ya gotta hand it to Handy Andy, he knows not what he knows, what he knew was all new, he had altogether no idea but knew all about it, all at the same time, except he didn’t but did…
I’ve no idea, but suspect it wasn’t just Andy’s nose growing during this interview:
Guyon Espiner:
Yeah, but, as head of the EPMU with members who were in this mine who were reporting safety incidents at the time, reporting over a thousand of them, [1,083 incidents] did you know about any of these safety issues when you were head of the EPMU?
Andrew Little:
Not until afterwards, not until after the, uhm…
Guyon Espiner:
So why not?
Andrew Little:
After the investigation was happening, and uhm…
Guyon Espiner:
“Why not?”
Andrew Little:
Well I don’t, you know we had, the union had, roughly 50,000 members at the time, uhm, so I don’t get, ah, I don’t get detailed reports on everything happening at every work site. I have to say that Pike River was well on, ah, my radar because from members that the union had at other mining sites, including Solid Energy mining sites and other underground mining sites in the area, that there were was word that Pike River mine was well behind schedule, there was financial pressure on the company, the guys were under pressure, there were questions about, ah, the guys being sent underground and their level of experience and…
Guyon Espiner:
Yeah, but you didn’t say that at the time though, did you; Minister? You didn’t say that! You said it was no different to any other mine and you said it had a very good health and safety committee that had been very active and that there had been nothing until now that alerted us to that.
Andrew Little:
Yes, because that was, that was what I was advised at the time.
Guyon Espiner:
(Long sigh)…
Handy Andy: Shifts stories like no other.