Santana Minerals wants to build a mine at Bendigo and Ardgour Stations, about 20km north of Cromwell, and is going through the final stages of the fast-track hearings.
The company has already raised doubts about the supposed biases of Sustainable Tarras expert witness Prof John Higham, Environmental Defence Society planner Elizabeth (Anne) Stevens and archaeologist Matt Sole.
Prof Higham and Ms Stevens have been cleared by fast-track panel chairman Matthew Muir, KC, and a decision is pending about Mr Sole.
However, in a memorandum from Sustainable Tarras published yesterday, the conservation group expressed its own doubts about the perceived biases of Santana’s expert witnesses.
Sustainable Tarras pointed at Santana witness Dr Paul Weber, who posted on LinkedIn ‘‘expressing support for the project while also purporting to give independent expert evidence about it’’.
The original post was by Green Road, a group of companies that includes Dr Weber’s consultancy Mine Waste Management.
‘‘If the panel intends to exclude any witness who has expressed a position on the project from participation in conferencing, the panel should also exclude Dr Weber from conferencing, and must now place limited weight on his evidence, given his LinkedIn post which expresses clear and intemperate support for the project.’’
Sustainable Tarras said removing people from the hearings was a heavy-handed approach.
‘‘Counsel submits that where an issue arises as to the extent of a witness’ independence, the appropriate course is not to exclude them from conferencing.
‘‘A level of partiality does not make expert evidence inadmissible: independence is a matter that goes to the weight placed on the evidence, not its admissibility.’’
Sustainable Tarras said it would rather ‘‘play the ball and not the man’’.
‘‘In this fast-track context where other normal opportunities for the witness’ evidence to be presented and tested are not available (i.e. a full hearing, with cross-examination), expert witness conferencing has a heightened importance.
‘‘Excluding a witness from participating in such a critical aspect of the process raises issues of natural justice.’’
The group also expressed concern about Santana’s tactic of ‘‘introducing employees as independent witnesses’’ during the conference stage of the hearings.
Santana chief executive Damian Spring said the company’s memorandums spoke for themselves.
‘‘The panel has acknowledged the concerns raised and made clear those matters will be taken into account when weighing the evidence. We respect that decision and remain focused on the substance of the conferencing process.
‘‘Santana’s experts are highly experienced professionals with decades of expertise in their respective fields and are bound by the professional standards and obligations applying to expert evidence.”
