Key is due to meet several Pike River family members and their lawyers this afternoon in Greymouth.
It comes as the second anniversary looms of the November 19, 2010, explosion that killed 29 men.
Their bodies remain entombed at the West Coast underground coalmine and no-one has been further than 300 metres along its 2.4-kilometre entry tunnel since the disaster.
The spokesman for some of the victims' families, Bernie Monk, said he planned to ask Key to put up money for recovery efforts as promised because the mine's new owner, Solid Energy, had told families it would be unlikely to start before 2014.
Monk, whose son Michael, 23, died in the blast, said experts hired by the families had given the Government a proposed body-recovery plan, including a staged re-entry into the tunnel up to a large rockfall at about 2.1km.
However, Solid Energy's financial woes meant it was unlikely to push ahead with reclaiming the tunnel, the first stage of re-entering the mine's main working section, where the bodies were believed to lie, he said.
"I believe the reason is they're waiting for coal prices to go up. It's not a top priority for them. That's not good enough for us."
Monk said it had been "very convenient" for the Government that the state-owned enterprise had bought the mine.
"The Government can wipe their hands of it," he said.
"Now everything has come to a standstill. We want the Government to come back and finish what they left."
After Key met Pike families in September last year he said the mine's owners could talk to the Government if funding for body recovery was an issue.
Monday 8 October 2012
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/7785613/Tough-questions-on-way-for-Key-on-body-recovery
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