Pike River is going way off track. But it is a sad situation where govt oversight should have been important.
I didn't say the whole reason for the Pike River explosions was the govt inspectorate. It was one of many things that were wrong, several of them had to be in place for the events to occur. Everyone knows that where there is coal, there is gas, or danger from fine coal dust. The workers would never have set this off by lighting something. If this mine had been checked more closely, there would have been more equipment put in, intrinsically safe gas monitors with wireless links or networks, as in other mines worldwide.
The monitors wouldn't have been faulty, ignored or turned off. They wouldn't have been working in poorly ventilated situations, where experienced miners knew it was unsafe, so quitting the job. Proper egress would have been organised. Equipment would not have been sent into the mine that didn't lock out when high gas levels were detected. They paid enough to keep workers down there, and shareholders helped put on the pressure to extract coal. This was the private sector at work, and it's not always in the best interests of staff.
So these are some of the reasons we pay taxes, to have a bit of oversight where it's needed. Removing those safety nets to save a small amount of taxpayer funds is not great policy in the end. It's stupid policy.