The statement, headed “Does the Labour [sic] candidate for Groom support New Acland Stage 3?”, sought to put pressure Allpass to publicly state her position on the New Acland expansion. It had no contact phone number and instead directed newsrooms to an email address and Facebook page. There has been no response to Guardian Australia’s questions sent to the email address.
“To the casual observer, these online groups appear to show a great deal of community-led organisation but are actually run by New Hope Group to give the impression of widespread public support for their [expansion].”The Friends of New Acland Mine statement claims the group is “a 4,000-member strong community group comprising of farmers, landholders, families, business owners and community members”.
Paul King, the secretary of the Oakey Coal Action Alliance – a local group campaigning against the expansion – said he believed that the Friends of New Acland Mine was “masquerading as a genuine community organisation”.