Opposition Labor Leader Selena Uibo secretly met with former Labor deputy chief minister and current Tamboran Resources vice-president Nicole Manison at the company’s Beetaloo Sub-basin operations south of Daly Waters in late May for discussions that Ms Uibo will not disclose, while claiming she drove the more than 600km round-trip outside of her electorate for the meeting and did not accept flights or other gifts from the company.

Tamboran not only has a stake in fracking projects in the Beetaloo, it is also one of the key proponents of the proposed Middle Arm industrial precinct, both of which have caused division in Territory Labor. The party has not held an annual conference for members since 2022, which resulted in pushback from rank-and-file members over the then-Labor government’s pro-gas policies and environmental failures – issues that have still not been resolved.

Ms Manison, who spruiked Tamboran while mining minister, later took a job with the company after leaving politics in 2024 following her failed attempt to become chief minister. The gas industry role led to widespread criticism from integrity experts and calls for an extension of the NT Government’s weak six-month cooling off period for ministers before accepting jobs in the industries for which they held portfolios.

The unexplained meeting with Ms Manison and Tamboran came just days before Ms Uibo was critical of the CLP Government’s flawed lobbyist register at Estimates hearings last month.

Ms Uibo did not respond to questions about how she proposes to make her meetings with lobbyists public and why the meeting with Ms Manison was not disclosed. There is nothing in the rules requiring MLAs to disclose their meetings with lobbyists, despite calls from integrity experts for that to occur.

Ms Manison and Tamboran are not on the government register as it only requires “third party” lobbyists to register – lobbyists whose clients are not identified by the company they represent – a policy which has been criticised as ineffective in keeping track of who lobbyists are meeting with.

Ms Uibo maintained she did not accept a flight to Tamboran’s operations south of Daly Waters and drove the massive 600km-plus round trip from Katherine for the meeting at the company’s facilities. She is obligated to disclose any gifts valued at over $750 on her register of members’ interests forms.

“I met with Tamboran about its operations in the Northern Territory [in May],” she said. “I travelled independently by car and did not accept flights, gifts or any financial benefit.

“As Opposition Leader, I meet with organisations across the Territory, including industry, community and local representatives.”

She would not say what she discussed with Ms Manison about Tamboran’s operations or what her position as Labor Leader is on fracking.

Neither Ms Manison or Tamboran responded to questions.

The previous Labor government signed a major gas supply agreement with Tamboran that did not go to tender months ahead of the 2024 election, the value of which has never been publicly disclosed by government but independently estimated to be worth between $1.8 billion and $4 billion.

Labor has also attracted criticism for not properly detailing who exactly its representatives meet with while charging taxpayers for travel across the Territory and interstate.

All official Labor Opposition travel within the NT for the nine-month period to March 31 this year cost a total of $48,600, which it appears was only for Ms Uibo and various staffers, listed as necessary for unspecified “various stakeholder meetings” or “stakeholder engagement” without any indication of what the meetings were about.

It is customary for MLAs to list who they meet with and why while undertaking official travel, but Labor would not explain why it is failing to identify those people and organisations. It is also unclear where the trip to meet with Ms Manison will be disclosed and how much taxpayers contributed.

Labor in turmoil as leadership questions raised

The party was thrust into turmoil and factional warfare last month after Ms Uibo and others in caucus rolled former deputy leader Dheran Young and replaced him with newly elected Member for Nightcliff Ed Smelt.

The Opposition Leader’s office then came under fire for its handling of a scandal involving Member for Arafura Manuel Brown that started with Ms Uibo failing to publicly disclose his multiple speeding tickets in a government vehicle that led to his licence being suspended for three months, but then grew to include Mr Brown allowing unlicensed children to operate his car, speeding again, lying about a fatal crash he caused in 2009 and raising questions about where he officially lives while collecting $450 a night to “stay” at his own home in Palmerston.

Despite continually lying and misleading the public and the party leader, Ms Uibo has continually backed Mr Brown in. She indicated earlier this month a caucus meeting will be held next week to discuss disciplinary measures for Mr Brown.

The party has not held an annual conference in nearly four years, after cancelling the 2023 conference out of reported fears its then-elected members, including Ms Manison and Ms Uibo, did not want to face party members over their pro-fracking positions and policies.

The party had put forward a motion to ban fracking at the 2022 conference. That led to unresolved complaints from members that they were not being listened to, which some have recently complained about still happening. Questions around dwindling membership numbers were also raised at the time.

Territory Labor secretary Karlee Dalton said last October the party was organising an annual conference in the coming weeks but that does not appear to have eventuated.

Ms Uibo initially did not respond to a question about where she and the party stand on fracking in the NT.

She later said the party supports the expansion of the onshore gas industry in the Territory, including fracking operations in the Beetaloo, but would not provide her own position on the issue.

“Territory Labor supports the onshore gas industry, provided it operates under a robust regulatory framework that is consistent with the recommendations of the Pepper Inquiry,” she said.

Ms Uibo has claimed she is unaligned to either the left or right faction of the Labor Party, but has never supported motions proposed by the left faction and was described by one party member as a “creature of [Michael] Gunner’s”.

Despite previously committing to releasing a review undertaken by national party executive members into Labor’s 2024 election loss, Ms Uibo recently backflipped and told the NT Independent she would not be making the review public. This has added to instability in the party as members have quietly called for the release of the review so that lessons can be learned and the party can move forward from the dysfunctional Gunner-Fyles-Manison years.

When asked about whether she was confident she could remain leader earlier this month, Ms Uibo told the ABC “nothing is safe in politics”, adding she takes the role of leader “very seriously”.