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When the federal government confirmed a $1.5 billion funding commitment for a new industrial hub near Darwin Harbour late last year, it was hailed as a "pathway towards decarbonisation".
- References to "petrochemicals" were removed from official websites about Middle Arm late last year
- Newly released emails show staff in the chief minister's department deleted the term
- Environmentalists say it's censorship, but the government says it wanted to counter "fearmongering"
But the promise of renewable hydrogen, critical minerals and carbon capture and storage also included another industry — petrochemicals.
So after green groups mounted a campaign against the Middle Arm Sustainable Development Precinct, the NT government hatched its own strategic response.
It removed the term "petrochemicals" from official websites about the project, as reported by the ABC last year.
At the time, it was not known which department was involved in the decision to scrub out the term, nor what was being said internally about the deletion.
But emails obtained by the ABC have confirmed staff in the Department of Chief Minister and Cabinet were tasked with removing the references from more than a dozen government websites.
This was despite the fact the government continues to seek approval from the NT Environment Protection Authority (NTEPA) for "low emission petrochemicals" to be among the mix of industries at Middle Arm.
The Environment Centre NT, which has been a vocal critic of the project, said the government's actions were absurd.
"It's like an episode of Utopia," the centre's co-director Kirsty Howey said, in reference to the satirical ABC TV show about a fictionalised government agency in charge of major projects.
"And it would be very funny if it wasn't so serious."
The emails — released under Freedom of Information laws — were written several days after Chief Minister Natasha Fyles pushed back against environmentalists' concerns about the precinct.
"This is not a petrochemical plant," Ms Fyles said on November 1 last year.
"This is a sustainable future project that is based on renewable energy into the future."
The emails show that by November 7, bureaucrats within her department had conducted an online audit in search of the term petrochemicals.
"Hi Team. Here are the references I located," one staff member wrote to colleagues.
The email featured links to several government websites, including Investment Territory, Territory Gas, Land Development Corporation and the NTEPA.
While the staff member was able to remove some of the references to petrochemicals, they noted they couldn't delete all of them.
"One of the Land Development [Corporation] pages does talk about Petrochemicals as does the NTEPA page but I don't think we have any influence there with the NTEPA I mean," they wrote.
In a separate email, the same staff member told colleagues about another deletion.
"I ended up removing the references on the investment opportunity page for Middle Arm as this is the page where people find out more about investing in the precinct," they wrote.
Ms Howey said it was a form of "deceptive" censorship.
"We and the community have been raising valid concerns for some time about the possible impacts of the industrialisation of Darwin Harbour, including, as part of that, petrochemicals factories," she said.
"And the government response seems to be to actively censor their own publicity material rather than responding to those concerns.
"And it does look deceptive, and that's because it is."
Ms Howey said it was particularly concerning that the online audit included the website of the NTEPA, which is yet to approve the project.
"That is extremely troubling and suggests a fundamental misapprehension of what environmental assessment is and the importance of arm's length environmental regulation," she said.
In response to questions from the ABC, the chief minister insisted the government's actions were necessary.
"The word 'petrochemical' has been removed as it has been used by certain groups to scare and fearmonger Territorians," Ms Fyles said in a statement.
"Middle Arm is a low emissions precinct, where sustainable projects will take place."
To date, one company has announced its intention to set up a minerals processing facility at Middle Arm, but Ms Fyles said more were expected to do so in the future.
The ABC has previously reported the NT government's original business case for Middle Arm described the precinct as a "new gas demand centre".
If approved, the project is expected to be developed in 2026, with the federal funding to be spent on common-user infrastructure including a jetty and an offloading facility.