In a hall ironically air-conditioned through a Shenhua  grant, about 80 people voiced their concerns about the huge mine that is just one nod away from going ahead.

Four Tamworth candidates and a representative for Greens candidate Pat Schultz sat on the stage to face an emotional crowd.

Farmers, Breeza residents and representatives of the Gomeroi people attended the event, to hear Nationals candidate and sitting member Kevin Anderson, Country Labor candidate Joe Hillard, Greens candidate for the Legislative Council Justin Field, and independents Peter Draper and Stan Heuston speak and to ask their own questions.

The $1.2 billion Shenhua Watermark Mine has been approved by the NSW government but has yet to get the nod from Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt, who is rumoured to be visiting the site on Friday.

The federal government looks at final approval for the mine under the Enviornmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.

The event saw mud thrown between parties and even between current and former politicians, with former Members for Tamworth Tony Windsor and John Cull in the audience.

Mr Draper told the audience the Planning Assessment Commission had been “no more than a rubber stamp” for mining activities.

“If you had told me I would contest the election a year ago, I would have said you were mad,” Mr Draper, who lost the seat of Tamworth to Mr Anderson in 2011, said.

“I am here because of the Shenhua issue and because of the government’s ridiculous plan to sell off our power assets that the people own.”

Mr Draper warned approval of the mine would result in large-scale protests.

“If people think there’s been a lot of activity at Maules Creek, it will be absolutely nothing compared to what will happen here if this mine goes ahead,” he said.

Mr Anderson told the emotional crowd the mining industry had “raced ahead of the controls”.

“We are looking at the processes to stop the runaway freight train of the resource extraction industry.

“I am doing everything possible I can to get the control back in the hands of the community.”

Mr Anderson said the seat of Tamworth had come with heavy baggage including the already approved exploration licences for the Chinese-government owned Shenhua.

He said he believed the fight wasn’t over and he would continue to do battle over water modelling for the mine.

“I can’t stop it [the mine],” Mr Anderson said, “and if anyone here on this stage says they can, I want to know how can they do it?”

Mr Hillard told the crowd Labor supported mining, but it did not approve of mining on the blacksoil plains in the Liverpool Plains area.

He said while mining and agriculture had managed to co-exist in the Gunnedah area for more than 100 years, he “empathised” with landholders in the area.

Mr Field said he had a long history of campaigning against mining, and would continue to do so.

"The Greens have put forward a plan to phase out coal mining in NSW," he said.

"The future of energy is in renewables and that is an economic opportunity for regional communities."  

Mr Heuston, who read from a copy of The Latham Diaries, by former Labor Party leader Mark Latham while sitting on stage, said his agenda was in party reform, but he also called for a stop for donations to political parties.

Speaker for the Gomeroi Elders, Jane Delaney-John, made an emotional plea about the rights of Aboriginal people in the process and the grinding grooves that Shenhua are seeking to relocate.

“The major parties are utterly disconnected from the community,” she said.

Ms Delaney-John said the Gomeroi people had been fighting against the Shenhua mine for 18 months, without arrests or even a warning.

“They have tried to use the system,” she said.

“Eighteen months ago, I would have said yes, there might be something in the system that works. But after 18 months, it has completely and utterly failed.”

Mr Windsor said there had been no sign the state government “wanted objectivity” throughout the mine approval process.

“All of these process have been put in place to design an outcome,” he said.

Trish Duddy, from Rossmar Park, said farmers had said the Liverpool Plains was a “no go zone” from the beginning.

“Now we are actually at the crunch time of the federal minister being in a position to make the decision, and I have got a horrible feeling that will be a yes rather than a no,” she said.

“The people, to a man, have said this is not a good idea. This is not the right place.”

She told Mr Anderson the process had been a “serious disgrace”.

Farmer Erin Moore, holding her three-year-old son Cameron, said she was worried about the family’s future on the plains.

“What is there for this little guy,” she said. “What future am I giving him?”

Breeza residents expressed their concerns about dust, water quality and health issues.

Environmental activist Murray Dreschler told the crowd people had been protesting against the Whitehaven Maules Creek for 1000 days.

“For 1000 days we have stayed strong and fought this,” he said.

“We are willing to fight here as well. These mines are very hard to stop.”