Northern Territory political donations data released yesterday reveals fracking company Tamboran Resources gifted $28,000 to the NT Labor Party - the highest amount from any single donor - in the lead up to this year’s election.
Fellow frackers Empire Energy donated $4,000 while its subsidiary Imperial Oil and Gas also donated $3,000.
Inpex meanwhile donated $5,850 to NT Labor, while the Minerals Council of Australia donated $1,500.
The Country Liberal Party also received donations from gas companies, including $2,750 from Empire Energy and $2,750 from Top End Energy, as well as $2,750 from gas lobby Australian Energy Producers.
All up, gas companies and gas lobbying organisations gave NT Labor and the CLP roughly $47,850 during the past 12 months.
Frack Free NT spokesperson Pete Callender said, “Frackers are donating tens of thousands of dollars in cash to the two big political parties in the Territory.
“It’s little surprise that in return, both Labor and Liberal are climbing over each other to back dangerous fracking.
“It’s particularly worrying to see these donations from Tamboran, when earlier this year they were granted a secretive nine year gas deal by the NT Government worth vast sums of money, without any open tender process.
“Ordinary Territorians don’t want fracking because it not only poses real threats to our democracy, but it risks draining and contaminating precious water, harms people’s health, and releases massive amounts of greenhouse gas pollution into the atmosphere.
“These sort of donations mean Territorians simply can’t trust that decisions made by politicians are truly in the public’s best interest and not the interests of dangerous, multinational fracking companies.”
In April this year, a Centre for Public Integrity report found the Northern Territory had the weakest lobbying laws in the country, and that the jurisdiction “makes no real attempt to eliminate undue influence or promote integrity in government decision-making”.
ENDS