CDU vice-chancellor Scott Bowman has refused to answer questions about his performance at last week’s Senate hearings into the proposed Middle Arm industrial precinct, including if he will produce project architect and CDU chancellor Paul Henderson’s register of interests as required and whether he will resign for appearing to breach the university’s policies around conflicts of interest and academic freedom.

He also refused to explain why he did not disclose to the Senate inquiry that Charles Darwin University has recently been awarded the majority of a $2 million contract by the NT Government to monitor fracking operations in the Beetaloo Sub-basin.

Mr Bowman was exposed at the Senate inquiry into the proposed Middle Arm industrial precinct last week for secretly attempting to stifle academic freedom and for failing to disclose conflicts of interest he and the university have with the gas industry and Middle Arm proponents.

The union representing CDU staff said Mr Bowman’s actions “should alarm all staff and students”.

Mr Bowman unilaterally tendered a submission to the inquiry from the university, supporting the development of the Middle Arm industrial precinct.

That angered staff, with three academics writing two submissions to the inquiry critical of CDU’s handling of the matter and questioning the motives behind its support.

It was revealed during the hearings last week that Mr Bowman had secretly written to the Senate committee to ask them to suppress one submission entirely and ordering them to redact parts of the other – authored by the outgoing chair of CDU’s human research ethics committee – because he did not agree with their opinions, in contravention of the university’s policy on academic freedom, which grants the “freedom of academic staff members and students to express their opinions in relation to the university”.

Academic freedom is also a key tenet in the university’s enterprise agreement with staff.

Mr Bowman’s letter specifically instructed the committee not to publish his orders to muzzle the academics’ opinions.

“I … object to this email being considered a public document for publication and do not authorise its publication,” he wrote.

The National Tertiary Education Union said Mr Bowman’s efforts were “highly concerning”.

“Trying to gag academics is an egregious attack on academic freedom and free speech and contravenes the Values and Enduring Principles of CDU,” NTEU NT secretary Rajeev Sharma said.

“Academics have a right to respond to CDU’s submission which supported this project despite no consultation with the university community.

“Academic freedom is a cornerstone of all universities. The vice-chancellor’s request for censorship should alarm all staff and students.

“Thankfully senators rejected the request, but it raises serious questions about the vice-chancellor’s commitment to a core university value.”

University’s conflicts of interest policy may have been breached

Mr Bowman was also criticised by the Senate committee for not disclosing the universities’ ties to the gas industry in his submission, to which he responded at the time: “Ahh, I, I, I’m not too sure what all the rules of the conflicts of interest are”.

Mr Bowman refused to answer the NT Independent’s questions on Monday, including why he had told the Senate inquiry he was unaware of the university’s conflict of interest policies and why he attempted to shut down dissenting opinion in contravention of the academic freedom policy.

He also would not say if the university was investigating his conduct or if he intended to resign for bringing the university into disrepute and breaching its policies.

A statement on the Charles Darwin University website specifically states that it is committed to ensuring “real, potential or perceived conflicts of interest … are managed fairly and transparently”, with the policy stating that all members of the university community have an obligation to “protect the reputation of the university by maintaining high ethical standards, fairness and integrity in all dealings”.

Mr Bowman appeared briefly on ABC Radio on Monday morning, where he attempted to explain his actions, stating that he had “no problem” with the submissions criticising the university, but added that he wanted what he had determined as “factually inaccurate” comments removed, including that CDU was “in the pockets of the gas industry”.

“So, we just said, ‘look, can you redact those parts or not publish it all together’,” he said.

He was not asked by ABC why he demanded that his letter ordering the suppression of dissenting opinion not be publicly released.

Mr Bowman maintained that he supported academic freedom and that the academics gave “great evidence, I think on sea birds and turtles”.

Mr Bowman had also revealed during the Senate inquiry that the university had not undertaken any work to determine the benefits of the Middle Arm project, despite its support for it.

He then appeared to be asked on ABC about the university’s many conflicts of interest, including gifts and money and that gas lobbyist, Middle Arm architect and former chief minister Paul Henderson was the university’s chancellor.

Instead of answering that, Mr Bowman parroted Labor Government talking points about the project and said CDU was “very supportive of economic development”, that it would “create 20,000 extra jobs” and calling Middle Arm an economic “game changer”, despite the university having no studies or evidence to support that.

He refused to answer an NT Independent question about whether Mr Henderson – who recommended the then-Gunner government pursue the project while co-chair of the NT’s economic reconstruction commission with former Dow Chemicals CEO Andrew Liveris – had encouraged him to send the submission from CDU supporting the Middle Arm petrochemical development.

Mr Bowman pledged to provide the committee with Mr Henderson’s university conflict of interest register, but would not say yesterday if that exists or if it will be provided on time.

New conflict emerges

Chief Minister Eva Lawler issued a statement yesterday announcing a $2 million annual “regional monitoring program” for natural gas from the Beetaloo Sub-basin, in which she stated that CDU had been awarded the contract to “undertake most monitoring activities, including data collection, analysis and public reporting”.

The government has proposed using gas from Beetaloo to power the Middle Arm industrial precinct.

Mr Bowman did not inform the inquiry about the latest contract with the government and did not respond to a question about why he would not have told the inquiry about that contract.

Non-compliance with the university’s policies is considered a breach of the staff code of conduct and “is treated seriously by the university”, according to its website. Reports about breaches are managed with “applicable disciplinary procedures”, but Mr Bowman refused to say if the university was currently investigating his conduct.

Independent ACT Senator David Pocock scolded Mr Bowman at last week’s hearings for failing to disclose the conflicts of interest at the time, saying that he was “insulting the Senate by not disclosing those sorts of conflicts of interest” and that he expected someone being paid more than $600,000 a year to be across all the university’s policies.