When the mining company representative came in for a coffee at Carolyn Forster's shop on the main drag in Horsham in Victoria's west last May, the interaction seemed harmless enough.
Key points:
- A mining company has been accused of misleading the public to win support for a mining project in Victoria's west
- Four business owners have asked the government to remove their submission statements
- Lawyers have referred the submission process to IBAC for investigation
The company man sold the positives of a big new sand mine proposed for the outskirts of the Victorian farming town.
The Victorian government had called for public feedback as part of the planning approvals process for WIM Resource's Avonbank project.
"The person did ask me if I had put my name down [in support of the mine]," Ms Forster said.
"And I said, no, I hadn't. [He] said, 'I'm happy to put your name down for you, if you like'."
Ms Forster said she thought it might bring jobs to Horsham and boost the country town's housing market, but she did not know much more about the project beyond that.
"They said they could write a submission on my behalf," she said.
"And I said, 'Yes, go ahead.'
"So that's how my name ended up on the cover sheet."
Ms Forster said she felt taken advantage of when her verbal approval of the mine became a 180-word, typo-ridden statement.
"I did not write that submission," she said.
"It's certainly not my lingo," she said.
"I had no idea that was going to be the impact on some local families that I've known all of my life.
"It wasn't a fair representation of what I thought because [the full detail] hadn't been explained to me of where the mining was going to be happening."
Mineral sands mining boom
WIM Resource is seeking Victorian government approval for the Avonbank mineral sands mine in Dooen, in western Victoria about 10 kilometres north-east of Horsham.
Over 30 years, the Chinese-backed company is proposing to dig up 12.75 million tonnes of heavy mineral concentrate that includes critical minerals for ceramics and paint, and rare earth products used in wind turbines, electronics, and electric vehicle batteries.
According to WIM Resource, the Avonbank project will generate 588 full-time jobs in the Wimmera and southern Mallee region and bring $180 million in royalties to the Victorian government over the life of the mine.
If successful, the mining licence will cover an area equivalent to about 1,000 MCGs over prime farmland that produces export-quality cereal crops, pulses, and canola.
Some farmers in the region have expressed concern that the operation will threaten their livelihoods and the region's agricultural industry.
As part of the government's assessment of the project, an Environmental Effects Statement was released for public consultation in April this year, ahead of a public inquiry.
It explained the environmental, health, social, and economic impacts of the mine and called for submissions from the community voicing their support or opposition to the proposal.
That's when some locals say company representatives of WIM Resources began sounding them out for their support, with some offering to put in submissions on their behalf.
"I thought that [the mine] would be really great for Horsham, but [I was] totally 100 per cent unaware that farmers would be forced off their land … it's very sad, actually," Ms Forster said.
She also said she knew "nothing" about the EES process, planning panels, or how mining approvals were conducted, and the implications of a submission being lodged on her behalf.
When she was told by a community member that a submission had been written in her name, Ms Forster contacted the government and asked for the submission to be pulled from consideration.
But Ms Forster's was not the only submission made in support of the project that was retracted.
'We would've never filled it in'
Another business owner in Horsham, who did not want to be identified, told the ABC a written submission was made in their name after a different WIM Resource representative approached them with what they thought was a petition to support local jobs.
They said they signed it under that pretense without being told about how the mine could impact landholders in the area, or how the document they were signing would inform the planning department's assessment of the proposed mine.
Like Ms Forster, the business owner said they did not know their name would end up being attached to a submission until another community member showed it to them.
Two others have separately requested the planning department remove the submissions in their names from the pool of 160 because they did not reflect their views.
Gloria Muldoon and her husband, Leon Forrest, sell machinery bearings and worked with WIM Resources during the trial phase of the project.
Ms Muldoon said they lodged a submission supporting the project after feeling "pressured" by WIM Resource contractors.
The submission consisted of a single line:
"I believe that project will be positive for the Horsham area," it read.
"We just did it in the end because we got sick and tired of being nagged," Ms Muldoon said.
But she said they were unaware of the disruption landholders faced if the project were to go ahead.
Ms Muldoon has since requested the government retract the submission.
"It reflects poorly on us that we didn't do our due diligence to understand what we were committing to," Ms Muldoon said.
"If we knew what we know now, we would never have filled it in."
Many affected farmers have told the ABC they were unaware of a 6,000-plus page document that had been released to explain the potential impacts of the project — as it coincided with the start of the sowing season, one of the busiest periods in the farming calendar.
A September 2023 statement by WIM Resource said it was unfortunate the EES was exhibited around the sowing season "but this timing was not of WIM's choosing".
"The EES was provided to the Victorian government well before the sowing season, and it had been WIM's expectation that the government would have authorised exhibition of the EES much earlier than it did," the statement read.
The company said it had engaged directly with impacted landowners extensively over several years including via one-on-one meetings, regular project newsletter updates, community reference group meetings, EES study webinars, website, and regular advertisements in the local newspaper.
WIM Resource also said: "Landowners will not be displaced from their homes permanently, and in some cases, not at all."
"WIM [Resource] has made efforts to avoid mining under houses and, as a consequence, no houses will be removed due to the mine. With the landholders' agreement, some houses will need to be temporarily vacated at times of the mine life.
"Prior to mining, WIM [Resource] intends to negotiate and enter into a land access and compensation agreement with each directly affected landholder," it read.
Gavin Morrow, who owns a car dealership, said a WIM Resource staff member emailed him asking him to lodge a submission supporting the project.
"As part of the email I got, it told us it was going to generate around 600 jobs and well over $300 million into the economy," Mr Morrow said.
The email also instructed him on how to complete the submission form and asked him to send them a lodgement receipt.
Mr Morrow said although he could potentially lose staff to the mine, he thought it would be beneficial to the wider community based on the information WIM Resource sent him, so he lodged a submission supporting it.
Mr Morrow said when he made his submission, he was completely unaware that landholders, some of whom he knew, could be moved off their land for the mine.
He, too, has since retracted his submission.
Allegations denied
Mr Morrow said he was not pressured by WIM Resource to put in a submission but wished he had looked beyond the information presented to him by a WIM representative to understand the implications of the project.
"Something I'd probably wish I'd done is get more sides of the story," he said.
In an earlier statement, WIM Resource said, "Around 80 per cent of EES public submissions were very positive and overwhelmingly supportive of the Avonbank Mine," but the company declined to answer specific questions about the allegations raised in this article more recently.
In a statement, lawyers for WIM Resource said:
"Our client denies any allegations which may have been made against it in relation to the EES process for the project.
"It has complied with Victorian government requirements relating to the EES process, and consulted extensively with community members who are potentially affected by the project.
"Any reporting to the contrary by the ABC is manifestly incorrect."
Seeking legal recourse
Lawyers representing affected landholders have lodged a complaint with the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC) over the handling of the public submissions process.
In November, Scanlon Carroll partner Sharelle Staff alerted the Victorian planning department to three submissions the law firm was concerned about and requested they conduct an audit to verify the authenticity of the submissions and the people they belonged to.
"The process has been undermined and it appears that the planning panel are giving little regard to the gravity of this matter," Ms Staff said.
Ms Staff was informed by Planning Panels Victoria (PPV) that "three submitters contacted Planning Panels Victoria and requested their submission be withdrawn as they advised they did not write it".
"PPV immediately withdrew those submissions as requested and the Inquiry and Advisory Committee did not refer to them in its report, which has now been finalised … With regard to your request for Planning Panels Victoria to contact all submitters, it is taking its own advice on that as a separate issue," Ms Staff was told.
In a statement, PPV told the ABC that submitters were required to provide their name, address, email address, and phone number but said the department did not have the power to independently verify this information or the identity of submitters.
PPV said they received the submissions in "good faith" and checked to ensure there were no duplications in submissions or email addresses.
The department also said that each submitter was contacted by email to inform them of their right to participate and/or observe the public hearings.
A report from the EES inquiry was prepared for Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny in November.
The minister is expected to make an assessment on the project, which will be released at her discretion.