Almost two years after the series of explosions tore through the West Coast coal mine, and after enduring weeks of intense royal commission hearings into the disaster, the bereaved families were yesterday told finally the deaths of 29 miners were entirely preventable.
Mine bosses ignored stark warnings over dangerous methane gas levels and the Government's health and safety checks were "Third World".
When Mr Finlayson and fellow cabinet minister Gerry Brownlee flew into Greymouth yesterday armed with thick copies of the much-anticipated royal commission report, they brought with them some finality to the grieving process.
"It's a moving on for me," said local publican Bernie Monk, a tireless campaigner and spokesman for most of the 29 families.
His son, Michael, is still buried in the collapsed mine shaft alongside his mates.
While it is likely the killer blast was caused by high methane levels, the royal commission report concludes, it does not categorically pin down the cause.
And they will never know, families accept, unless they go back into the mine and recover the bodies.
Mr Monk said Mr Finlayson - who is tasked with looking at the 16 recommendations in the report for the Government - promised the families he would "help us do the reclamation of the drift".
The minister has promised to update victims' families on getting access to the drift - the main tunnel into the mine - within a fortnight.
"I was really rapt with that," Mr Monk said.
"There are answers down that drift. They [the Government] know how many blunders have been made here and they want to make amends."
About 40 family members, either in person or tuning in via phone conference, discussed the damning report with ministers and lawyers for about 70 minutes yesterday.
Mr Finlayson "spoke very well", said Rachelle Weaver, whose partner, Josh Ufer, died in the tragedy, leaving his unborn daughter fatherless.
At the end of the session, few questions were left to be asked.
"These families have gone through the commission - some went every day - and this was summarised in a very strong way," Mr Monk said outside the closed-doors meeting.
The likelihood of introducing corporate manslaughter into criminal law was not discussed.
Mr Monk's daughter Olivia wanted the report to go further and find out what caused the explosion, and who was to blame.
"They won't know until they go down the mine," she said.
"It's a best guess, at best. We've known these things all along, but now it's all out in the open, in black and white."
Lawyer for the families Nicholas Davidson QC said the report gave an "unrelenting picture of failure at virtually every level".
"It is a failure in the way the legislation has been applied, the failure of the Department of Labour in its inspectorate role.
"Virtually nothing is a surprise here, except the emphatic nature of the conclusions reached," Mr Davidson said.
He said one of the most telling features of the report was when it talked about an underviewer in April 2010 dealing with the amount of gas venting in the mine and writing an email to the board saying "methane showed no mercy".
The underviewer advised a full re-engineering of the entire gas drainage system, but nothing was done, Mr Davidson said.
"The truly appalling factual thing - and we kind of knew it before but here it is in black and white - is that in the period before the explosion only one sensor was working to record underground gas.
"It was a faulty gas sensor in the ventilation shaft.
"Anything could have blown it up on previous days. How that could happen, the families simply do not understand.
"It is inconceivable that such a shocking error took place."
It was "extraordinary" the explosion did not happen sooner, Mr Davidson said.
As the families filed out of the court yesterday, most were too emotional, or too shellshocked, to answer questions.
Grey Mayor Tony Kokshoorn said the disaster had affected everyone in Greymouth, but praised the "very good, very comprehensive" report.
It was especially damning of the lack of regard for health and safety shown by Pike River Coal management and that it was "up to the courts to determine how offences will be dealt with".
"It's crucial that the Government now acts immediately to make our mines safe here, on the West Coast, and around the rest of New Zealand."
