The Lawler Government and Charles Darwin University have refused to explain how the university can provide the necessary independence to undertake monitoring of the gas industry’s fracking operations in the Beetaloo Sub-Basin, after its vice-chancellor told a Senate inquiry the university regularly accepts money and gifts from the industry, with other integrity issues at the highest levels of the university remaining unresolved.

The contract to provide monitoring services was not put to public tender and was announced last week, ahead of the government signing a massive un-costed gas sales agreement with Tamboran Resources yesterday to purchase Beetaloo Sub-basin gas to keep the Territory’s electricity grid running before environmental approval was granted for Tamboran’s operations.

The contract for the industry monitoring services was awarded to CDU through a “partnership agreement” with the NT Government that has been in place since 2017, seemingly permitting the government to award contracts to CDU as it sees fit without going to public tender, in an effort to “better align the NT Government’s and CDU’s mutual interests”, the agreement states.

The Environment Centre NT said details of the Beetaloo monitoring agreement remain unknown, raising questions over what the university is going to be monitoring precisely and comes amid integrity issues for the university, following vice-chancellor Scott Bowman’s disastrous appearance at the Senate inquiry earlier this month, where he admitted he did not know the university’s policy around conflicts of interest and that CDU regularly receives money and gifts from industry through various other partnerships.

“While it’s widely understood that gas industry capture is a feature of government here, Territorians are asking whether our only university is infected with the same disease,” Environment Centre NT director Kirsty Howey said.

“The lack of any public tender for this contract immediately raises questions about the independence and transparency of this research, and its purpose.

“Any CDU funding associated with the gas industry requires the highest degree of scrutiny, following the Senate Inquiry revelations.”

It was also revealed Mr Bowman did not disclose the gifts and perceived conflicts in the university’s submission supporting the Middle Arm gas precinct or that CDU’s chancellor and former chief minister Paul Henderson lobbies on behalf of undisclosed gas companies and was one of the architects of the Middle Arm project, including recommending the government pursue it in his role as co-chair of the Gunner government’s Territory Economic Reconstruction Commission.

The proposed Middle Arm industrial precinct would use gas from the Beetaloo Sub-basin.

Mr Bowman also secretly attempted to have the Senate inquiry suppress dissenting opinions from CDU academics, in which three professors raised their concerns about CDU’s process to determine its support for Middle Arm, including an accusation that the university was “in the pockets of the gas industry”.

“For the sake of the NT’s faltering democracy, it’s crucial that the independence, and the academic integrity and freedom, of CDU research and researchers is respected,” Ms Howey said.

“In 2024, it’s unacceptable for any university to be spruiking new fossil fuel projects at all, let alone attempting to suppress the contrary views of its own academics, especially when those views actually align with the climate science.”

Mr Bowman and Mr Henderson have refused to answer questions since the revelations at the inquiry.

The university media team also denied the NT Independent access to send questions to CDU’s Research Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods director, who is supposedly carrying out the Beetaloo monitoring project.

The government said CDU would undertake “most” monitoring activities of industry in the Beetaloo, including data collection, analysis and public reporting, which they said was crucial to ensuring the Territory has “the strongest environmental safeguards” and that “our gas industry is developed safely” with “transparent, publicly accessible reporting”.

Monitoring program of gas industry crucial: Government

Environment Minister Kate Worden said CDU was awarded the contract through the partnership agreement because it has the “relevant scientific expertise to carry out the monitoring program within the Research Institute for Environment and Livelihoods”.

“The collection of monitoring data by a research institution like CDU is intended to increase public confidence by allowing expert scientific scrutiny of the developing gas industry that is independent from both government and industry,” she said in a statement.

“[The Department of Environment, Parks and Water Security] will secure another provider if CDU are unable to carry out components of the monitoring. All data and reports generated through this program will be made publicly available.”

It was unclear what she meant by CDU possibly being unable to carry out the monitoring.

She added that government regulators would continue with their “normal monitoring and compliance activities” and that gas companies such as Tamboran and Empire will also be required to undertake their own monitoring “as required through their project approvals”.

Ms Worden did not respond to a follow-up question seeking an explanation of how CDU could provide the independence necessary to carry out the monitoring program while it receives cash and gifts from the industry, while its students seek employment with gas companies and while unresolved integrity issues remain in the university’s highest executive office and on its council.

The gas supply deal, signed on Tuesday between the NT Government and Tamboran, will provide gas to the NT Government’s power generators, expected as early as the first half of 2026, and will run for nine years with the option to extend the agreement for another six-and-a-half years. The terms and cost of the agreement were not disclosed.

Tamboran still needs to secure access to the necessary pipelines and receive all required permits and approvals – including final environmental approval from the NT Government, which became the first and largest customer for Tamboran’s Beetaloo interests, raising questions about the integrity of its environmental approval process.