At Branxton community hall in the New South Wales Hunter Valley last week, local resident Janet Murray was given five minutes to speak about plans for the state’s biggest coalmine extension.Before her were dozens of people, also there to share their views about whether the 19-year extension proposed by Hunter Valley Operations (HVO) should be allowed to proceed.As a former superintendent of blast furnace operations in the lead-up to the closure of the Newcastle steelworks in 1999, Murray has “first-hand experience” of working in an industry facing major change.She understood that the prospect of ongoing employment “is a highly emotive issue in our community and can also be very stressful for those directly involved”.Sign up for the Breaking News Australia emailDespite this, Murray said Glencore and Yancoal’s joint proposal to mine an additional 430m tonnes of coal should be rejected, she said.“I’m here today because I’m fearful for the quality of life that my children will have in a hotter world and also the state of the natural world. I’m opposed to this extension,” she said.In one short speech, Murray cut to the heart of the personal hardship in the room and the challenge before the state’s Independent Planning Commission. What kind of community will survive into the future?Not on targetThe open-cut project near Singleton comprises two mining areas – a north mine and south mine – and directly employs about 1,500 people, according to Glencore and Yancoal.The northern mine’s planning approval is due to expire this year, but HVO is seeking permission to mine at that site until 2045 and at the southern site until 2042.It would become the largest coal project in the state, based on projected output, and cause about 800m tonnes of additional greenhouse gas emissions – most from when the coal is burned overseas – at a time when fossil fuels are driving dangerous global heating.In NSW, the independent Net Zero Commission last year warned the Minns government that extended or expanded coalmines were inconsistent with the state’s legislated climate targets of a 50% emissions reduction by 2030, 70% by 2035 and net zero by 2050.This week, it warned NSW had slipped further from reaching its 2030 and 2035 targets and needed to work 2.5 times faster to achieve them.The Minns government has banned greenfield coalmines – a move the Net Zero Commission said “is more symbolic than material” given no mines of that type had been approved since 2018 – but the new state coal strategy supports extensions and expansions.There are almost 20 such projects proposed in NSW. HVO’s is the largest and the first of that group to come before the planning commission for a determination.Whichever way the commission decides, it will have significant implications not just for the Hunter and Newcastle, but for the state.‘Not an abstract debate’The planning commission’s public forums are unique in Australia. They allow community members to honestly air views and for experts to present evidence and answer questions before a panel that will consider all of the testimony before reaching a decision. More than 130 speakers have put their positions on the HVO proposal across three hearings held over the past two weeks.Speaking in favour of the project at the second hearing, Robin Williams of the Mining and Energy Union said the decision was about the workers whose jobs depended on HVO, the contractors who supplied the mine and “the families and communities that rely on those wages being spent in these towns”.Decommissioned power station’s chimneys crash to the ground in livestreamed demolition – video“For many of us who work, live in the Hunter, this is not an abstract debate about policy,” Williams said.“It’s about whether communities like Singleton and Muswellbrook continue to have secure employment, thriving local economies and opportunities for the next generation.”Williams said the Hunter, as a coalmining region, was already facing major economic transition. The Mount Arthur coalmine in Muswellbrook is scheduled to close in 2030, and other coal operations are expected to wind down over coming decades.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotion“Without approval of this project, the closure of HVO will create another major economic shock at precisely a time our communities are already dealing with significant change,” Williams said.Geoff Stevenson, a maintenance engineer at HVO and one of several workers to appear before the commission, said the threat of the mine closing “creates a lot of uncertainty and anxiety”.But Greg Mullins, a former commissioner of Fire and Rescue NSW and member of Emergency Leaders for Climate Action, told the panel the government’s highest duty was “to keep its citizens safe”.“The illusory and short-term benefits of approving this extension will help a small number, but will eventually harm everybody, particularly those who have no voice, those who have not yet been born,” he said.“This is too high a price to pay for an industry that is in terminal decline.”Natural disastersFor some who gave evidence, the climate crisis is not an abstract future concept or policy but reality.Those who lost homes and businesses across the state in fires and floods since 2019, Newcastle residents facing rising insurance bills due to flood risk, and a Hunter Valley pensioner grappling with mould and sinking support piers after too much torrential rain at her house, all told the commission of the certain risk of increased harm if the project proceeded.Kathy McKenzie spoke of bushfires at Wollemi national park in 2019 that were followed by floods in 2022, which left long stretches of Putty Road still in need of repair. Kerry Walker, a former coal engineer from the Hunter and a wildlife rescuer, detailed how local flying foxes became “weakened, dehydrated, lethargic, comatose, and end up on the ground” in heatwaves.“If we don’t get to them quickly, they can die within 20 minutes,” she said.Fiona Lee, a mid-north coast resident who lost her home in the 2019 black summer fires, told the panel her local council had been forced to apply for disaster funding “sixteen times in just the six years since black summer”.“Glencore and Yancoal continue to post huge profits while they’re fuelling extreme weather events like bushfires and floods, which are costing ordinary people like me and my family everything, but they are paying none of the price,” she said.Murray, the former steelworker, and other opponents of the project argued it was the responsibility of coal companies to plan a fair transition for their workers.“Looking at all these people who work, I’m really sorry that individually you’re in this position that you’re going to have to maybe transition or change or lose your job,” said Jane Watson, a resident in Manning Valley.“But it’s happened all the time throughout our history that there’s been periods where we’ve had to change, and change for the good of everybody.”On the final day of hearings this week, the commission was told that a condition of HVO’s original planning consent that required it to develop an exit strategy had been removed. The Greens’ environment spokesperson and former environment lawyer, Sue Higginson, told the commission the project would probably face a legal challenge if approved.The commission’s decision is expected in early September.