Rio Tinto pressured its own employees to make official submissions to support a massive mine expansion that the local community overwhelmingly opposes. According to workers, the mining giant brought a laptop to the site of its Warkworth coal mine and had them lodge submissions with the planning department in favour of the mine.

Rio Tinto will stop at nothing to get this coal mine expansion approved. When its first application was rejected by the courts, Rio Tinto submitted another application to the NSW Department of Planning -- and just three days after hearing public comments, the department recommended the extension be approved. If this sounds dodgy, it’s because it is.

Submissions on the final report close on Friday -- we need to make sure decision makers don't just hear from Rio Tinto and its cronies. Let's show them that the local community of Bulga won't be trampled on. 

Let's stand up to Rio Tinto's bullying, and tell the NSW Planning Assessment Commission the community of Bulga doesn't want this massive mine expansion.

Residents of Bulga have been fighting this expansion for four years. They took the first approval to the Land and Environment Court and won, but Rio Tinto and the New South Wales Government cosied up together and have asked the Supreme Court to overrule it. While the Surpreme Court is still thinking, Rio Tinto’s has submitted and fast-tracked a new application in the hope that nobody will notice.

Even the Daily Telegraph has called the mine expansion a "death sentence" for the village. Bulga is home to 350 people and Rio Tinto have mined just over the ridge for decades, but now the giant wants to tear down Saddle Ridge -- the only buffer between Bulga and the mine -- and dig up more coal. 

Residents of Bulga have put up with noise and dust from the mine for years, but if Rio Tinto get their way residents will be choking on dust and other pollutants from an unwanted mine in their own backyards.

Let's stand with the residents of Bulga and tell the Planning Assessment Commission not to approve this damaging mine expansion.