There has been test fracking for gas for several years on Jingili traditional owner Mark Raymond's country at Tanumbirini, Beetaloo Station and Amungee Mungee.
He is worried about the Northern Territory government's plan to allow a major Beetaloo Basin gas development to start full production later this year, because he fears there could be environmental impacts.
Mr Raymond is also sceptical of industry predictions that fracking in the Beetaloo could create up to 6,000 jobs, and billions of dollars in economic activity and taxes.
"I think it's all not true about employment and the benefit of our mob," Mr Raymond said.
"They all promise that when they want you to sign an agreement for the exploration of your country, but in the long term there's nothing for us."
A report written for the National Indigenous Australians Agency by consultants at the end of 2021 before the Morrison government lost office came to similar conclusions.
It was obtained under Freedom of Information laws by the Nurrdalinji Aboriginal Corporation, which represents some traditional owners deeply opposed to fracking.
The name of the consultancy was deleted from the released documents.
Jobs not suitable for local Indigenous people
The report concludes economic benefits would be "uncertain and variable" and quotes a 2021 senate inquiry report which found "the Beetaloo economic case is overly optimistic and unrealistic".
The report forecasts there would be 700 jobs in construction and operating gas fields at the peak of a Beetaloo development, and that it may be difficult for local Indigenous people to get those jobs.
"Even if resource development does bring economic development and jobs to the basin, this may not significantly benefit local Aboriginal people and communities as available jobs may not match the local skills base," the report found.
"There is high unemployment in the basin, heavy dependence on a fly-in fly-out workforce."
Samuel Sandy, the deputy chair of the Nurrdalinji Corporation, said jobs in the Beetaloo Basin were not suited to his people.
"My people never worked in a company like that, in oil rigs, and I think those jobs are not suitable for them,” he said.
“And in benefits, we haven’t got anything. I haven't got anything.”
The report found "conditions are not conducive" to the Basin's majority Indigenous community being able to negotiate strongly to get benefits.
That is because communities are isolated and dispersed, and their representative bodies, including Indigenous land councils and bodies like Nurrdalinji, do not have a similar level of resourcing to the gas companies they need to negotiate with.
"The legislative framework operating in the Beetaloo Sub-basin does not favour Aboriginal interests," the report said.
The report said most of the land is held by traditional owners under native title, but Aboriginal people only had the power to veto developments across a small portion.
"The Native Title Act does not require informed consent or provide native title holders with a power of veto over resource development,” the report said.
The report also found that there is a "risk" that companies in the Beetaloo Basin will not commit to principles of corporate social responsibility in relation to Aboriginal people.
It added: "Research shows that even where strong agreements are negotiated, the benefits for resident Indigenous populations can still be decidedly mixed."
Gas industry says there will be benefits
David Slama, the NT director of the gas industry's representative body — the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association — said local Indigenous people are already benefiting from jobs in the Beetaloo Basin.
"There's already a local Indigenous-owned company that operates out of Elliot, and Rusca Brothers have been working with explorers, so there is already a lot of economic benefit going to local businesses,” he said.
Mr Slama said the Beetaloo Basin could create between 4,000 and 6,000 jobs, ranging from hospitality to civil construction, with the industry still waiting for government approval to start production.
He said the industry takes its social responsibility in the Beetaloo Basin seriously.
"We, as APPEA and operators and contractors, have been consulting, communicating and educating for quite a while now around the benefits of the use of gas and the opportunities," he said.
Chief Minister Natasha Fyles said the Northern Territory government will ensure there will be benefits for local Indigenous people.
Recommendations on improving negotiations
The report recommended Indigenous communities could get more benefits if both the NT and federal governments ensured that free, prior, and informed consent of traditional owners had been gained by gas companies, at each of their approvals process stages.
It also recommended that governments need to ensure that Indigenous representative bodies are better funded for negotiations.
The report suggested negotiating collective basin-wide deals could be a way to increase traditional owner strength.
Associate professor Janet Hunt from the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy at the Australian National University said collective negotiations could help basin communities get better deals.
"By having an alliance of traditional owner groups, it would strengthen their hand and they would get strength in numbers," she said.
Ms Hunt said the NT and federal governments could also strengthen Indigenous communities' negotiating positions by changing rules and increasing funding to representative bodies.
"They could be strengthened in terms of having the right to free, prior and informed consent, and they could be strengthened by having independent resourcing which is enough to enable the groups to come together and prepare themselves every time they enter into a negotiation meeting with a company," she said.
The National Indigenous Australians Agency told the ABC that the report was never published because it was "an internal working document".
The Nurrdalinji Corporation obtained it by applying for correspondence between the agency and the Indigenous Australians Minister.
The Coalition's current Indigenous Australians spokesman told the ABC the shadow minister was not aware of the report.
