A former gas company heavyweight has been appointed the interim Territory Coordinator whose office, along with the Territory Coordinator minister, is to have powers to override environmental protections as the Northern Territory government forges ahead with another election promise.
But environmental groups fear the role will accelerate mining and gas projects without proper scrutiny after Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro appointed former Inpex executive Stuart Knowles to the top job.
The NT government says the role will drive economic growth in the north and accelerate private sector jobs.
NT Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro says the territory has abundant natural assets. ((A)manda Parkinson/AAP PHOTOS)
Ms Finocchiaro also carried out consultation on proposed laws for the statutory role, which will enable existing laws to be overridden if they are hindering a project's progress.
As Territory Coordinator, Mr Knowles and the minister would have the power to step in and take over the assessment process from other approval bodies.
"This will be the biggest piece of economic reform the territory has seen in a good decade, and it's been very, very well ventilated and consulted on across the community," Ms Finocchiaro told AAP.
"In terms of the office itself, for me, it's about signalling to the rest of this country and the world that the territory is open for business and that we're going to have a competitive framework to do that in."
Ms Finocchiaro said the territory has an abundance of natural assets that can service both the domestic and international markets.
"We know that gas is around 50 per cent cleaner than coal, and we have a huge opportunity to underpin that transition to renewables ... it can be safely done here."
Opposition Leader Selena Uibo said people deserve to know how the new powers would be used. ((A)manda Parkinson/AAP PHOTOS)
However, Opposition Leader Selena Uibo accused the NT government of not answering the public's questions about how exemptions or step-in powers would be used by the Office of the Territory Coordinator.
"I think Territorians absolutely deserve to know what this legislation will mean in terms of impact, in terms of processes," Ms Uibo said.
"We know and understand that the goal of this legislation is around cutting red tape, but to what effect and what impact will that have on the territory?"
Environmentalists have also expressed concerns about the government's proposed laws, saying in its current draft exemptions could remove the requirement for fracking companies to obtain consent from traditional owners.
"It will trample protections that are in place for Territorians and will grant multinational fracking companies the right to commit open slather destruction right across the heart of the NT," said Frack Free NT spokesperson Louis Boyle-Bryant.
"The draft legislation is vague and we have serious concerns that it could be interpreted in ways that utterly fails the community and exclusively serves the interests of big business, putting our water and the natural environment at risk."
The legislation is expected to be tabled in the NT parliament by March.
32°C