EXCLUSIVE: Chief Minister Natasha Fyles’ most senior political adviser’s consultancy firm is the registered lobbyist for a national gas company that the NT Government approved to frack the Beetaloo Basin and develop a massive Middle Arm LNG project, federal records show, raising further serious conflict of interest concerns involving the NT Government’s gas policies, the NT Independent can reveal.

The latest conflict of interest in the Chief Minister’s Office comes amid new reports this week that revealed the NT Government altered its climate policy on new gas projects to suit the gas industry’s demands late last year without properly consulting anyone else.

The NT Independent first reported that Gerard Richardson was hired by Ms Fyles as chief political strategist sometime in July through a mysterious contract with his consultancy company Brookline Advisory Pty Ltd, which ASIC records show was set up as a partnership between Mr Richardson and Paul Henderson’s former media adviser Lidija Ivanovski earlier this year.

According to the Australian Government Register of Lobbyists, Brookline Advisory is the official lobbyist for Tamboran Resources as of November 8, which is one of five companies Ms Fyles’ government provided exclusive land commitments to at Middle Arm back in June.

Tamboran plans to build a massive LNG plant at the site to export the gas it produces from fracking in the Beetaloo Basin, which it was given the greenlight to commence operations at by the government in May of this year, before all recommendations from the Pepper Inquiry were fully implemented.

In a June ASX announcement about the land deal at Middle Arm with the NT Government, Tamboran said its proposed LNG development at the 170 hectare site would have an initial capacity of 6.6 million tonnes of LNG per year – Inpex’s Ichthys LNG plant has capacity for 8.9 million tonnes by comparison – with “the potential for expansion”. The company is currently undergoing feasibility works on the project and has already signed MOUs with major gas companies to use the facility.

Tamboran is the largest gas player in the Beetaloo Basin and expects to begin production in the region as early as next year.

Ms Fyles has long promoted the Middle Arm project as the focus of her government’s pro-gas agenda, using taxpayer funds to spruik the benefits of the gas production facility that would also see a proposed carbon capture and storage facility, as well as minerals processing, hydrogen production and gas exporting facilities at the industrial hub.

Her office refused to respond to the NT Independent’s questions for this story, including how she manages the conflict of interest of her chief political adviser’s company acting as Tamboran’s lobbyist in Canberra and presumably here in the NT.

She also refused to say if Mr Richardson had attended any NT Cabinet meetings where Middle Arm or the NT’s gas industry were discussed, or if he has offered advice around gas development policies.

Geoffrey Watson, a director of the Centre for Public Integrity and a former counsel assisting the NSW ICAC, told the NT Independent that he was “genuinely shocked” that the Chief Minister’s adviser would also run a consultancy firm that is a registered lobbyist for a gas company with many direct interests in the Northern Territory.

“I don’t know what’s going on up there,” he said. “I’ve never seen such a comparably obvious conflict of interest. It’s a small place, but it’s no excuse to be doing things the right way.

“I struggle to make sense of why anyone would think this is appropriate. I don’t think you can hold those two roles – you cannot have a political role and a lobbyist role as the conflict is just too obvious.”

Mr Watson said Ms Fyles should also explain the nature of the political advisory contract with Mr Richardson and questioned how he could be paid with taxpayer money as a political strategist while not technically working as a public servant or parliamentary staffer.

He also called for the NT to implement a lobbyist register, similar to every other state and territory, that requires lobbyists to register and politicians to disclose their meetings with lobbyists.

Fyles credibility on gas lost after Woodside shares debacle; claims Richardson helped sell industry to public

Integrity questions were raised last month about Ms Fyles and her government’s gas development policies after the NT Independent revealed she had an undisclosed number of shares in gas giant Woodside Energy, a company that also has an interest in the Middle Arm precinct and the carbon capture project proposed for the area.

Ms Fyles first attempted to defend the shares and argued she was keeping them for her children, but the next day backed down and said she was divesting what she claimed were 169 shares to “end this distraction”.

The divestment admission only came after it was revealed she had breached the NT ministerial code of conduct by not immediately divesting the shares, which had created a perceived conflict of interest when she obtained them through a merger with BHP in June of last year.

She has refused to answer questions about the breach of the code which is meant to ensure ministers function with integrity.

Ms Fyles also appears to have violated the Legislative Assembly (Disclosure of Interests) Act by not disclosing her shares in BHP from 2017 to 2020 – as well as failing to disclose her husband’s employment with a company she has awarded tens of millions worth of government contracts to – although nobody has referred Ms Fyles for investigation into either matter. It is understood Cabinet has not discussed the issue as it is required to do under the Cabinet handbook when breaches of the code of conduct occur.

The latest conflict of interest revelation involving her adviser’s connections to industry follows letters and emails reported by The Guardian on Monday that showed Ms Fyles’ government abandoned a proposal to set net zero emissions requirements for Beetaloo gas developments after the industry objected late last year, with no other bodies consulted on the key climate recommendation of the Pepper Inquiry into hydraulic fracturing in the NT.

Environmental critics have previously called the Middle Arm precinct “the poster child for state capture by the fossil fuel industry in Australia”, with Ms Fyles routinely parroting industry talking points when promoting the multi-billion dollar industrial hub that has been underwritten with $1.5 billion in federal funding.

Mr Richardson previously worked for former chief minister Michael Gunner on the 2020 NT general election, with the NT News crediting him with winning the campaign for Mr Gunner by improving his media performances during the COVID pandemic.

Upon hiring Mr Richardson, Ms Fyles told ABC Radio Darwin in August that Mr Richardson “works with me just as a number of people do, just as he did for Michael”, adding what appeared to be a comment about the need to sell the gas industry to Territorians with Mr Richardson’s help.

Asked if his hiring was part of a political “rebrand”, Ms Fyles responded: “What I am articulating to the community is why we need the resources and how we’re growing our economy to achieve that”.

“For me, it’s something that I’ve been working on since I became Chief Minister,” she said.

Ms Fyles has used taxpayer money to repeatedly promote the Middle Arm industrial precinct, including flying to Canberra in August to give a speech at the National Press Club, in which she defended the project and attacked “teals and trolls” for criticising the NT’s gas industry, while explaining to the rest of the country “why we love Middle Arm”.

She made no mention of her own shares in Woodside at the time, or that her then recently-hired chief political adviser had ties to the industry.

She accused environmentally-conscious federal politicians of “bagging out [gas] development” and running a “misleading scare campaign” about the NT’s gas industry, which she has sought to expand as part of the Territory Labor Government’s ambitious target of a $40 billion economy by 2030.

The other four companies Ms Fyles provided exclusive land offerings to at Middle Arm include Tivan, Total Eren, Avenira and Fortescue Future Industries, which plans to build a green hydrogen and green ammonia production plant, as well as export facilities.

Mr Richardson and his business partner at Brookline Advisory Lidija Ivanovski also did not respond to questions, including why the pair thought it was appropriate to provide political advice to Ms Fyles while also acting as Tamboran’s registered lobbyist.

Brookline Advisory’s other clients on the federal lobbyist register include the Electric Vehicle Council of Australia, Doordash Technologies, DiDi Mobility, PsiQuantum and the University of Tasmania.