Katherine in the Northern Territory is bat country.

As I finished my talk on the economics of fracking at the pokies-filled Katherine Club, thousands of flying foxes came out into the dusk, circled town a few times and flew into the night in search of fruit.

The reason there’s fruit around for the flying foxes is the same reason the punters of Katherine turned out on a Sunday evening to hear an economist talk about the economics of gas: groundwater. The mango farms use it, the town drinks it, and locals and visitors alike soak in it at the Katherine Hot Springs.

It’s also part of the reason why this historically Country Liberal Party seat went Labor in the last NT election — although the scandals of the Giles government clearly didn’t help. Several people at my talk said they’d always been CLP voters, but they voted Labor because of the party’s promise of a moratorium on fracking.

The fear and loathing of fracking in the NT isn’t uninformed. They’ve heard all the info that it can be done safely if properly monitored, regulated, etc. It’s just that no one there thinks that’s what would happen. NT governments aren’t famous for their great environmental management of resource projects, with the smouldering waste heaps of the McArthur River mine being just the latest debacle.

I heard this kind of talk all the way up the Stuart Highway from Alice Springs to Darwin. It didn’t matter if I was in a mayor’s office, a chamber of commerce, a pastoral homestead or an indigenous community. While people in Tennant Creek were keen for jobs, like the 19 locals who’d been paid to fill up sandbags for a recent pipeline project, not a single person I met was enthusiastic about fracking … until I arrived in Parliament House in Darwin.

In the airconditioned offices of Parliament, things were different. Two MLAs who were elected on anti-fracking platforms now say their position is based on what their constituents want. I oppose fracking” became “my constituents want me to oppose fracking”. See the difference?

Things were even less subtle in another office where a senior government figure came into our meeting with his coffee in an APPEA mug.

APPEA is the main gas lobby group, the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association. Part of the reason for my trip was to critique economic modelling from Deloitte Access Economics, commissioned by APPEA. All supporters of fracking, and of course the NT News, quote this report’s claim that if we just let the frackers in, there’d be billions in revenue and 6300 more jobs in the NT.

The problem is that this modelling assumes that it’s cheap to extract gas in the NT, at $3 per gigajoule (p20). Independent analysts think the cost will be more like $4-$8 per gigajoule before significant transport costs, making these projects unlikely to be competitive on the international or domestic market and less likely still to employ thousands of people.

But back to the NT political heavyweight with the APPEA mug. “Oh, just an unlucky pick! Whoops! We’ve got loads of mugs out there. Next time I meet APPEA I’ll use my Australian Conservation Society mug.” Which would be more believable if the Australian Conservation Society were an organisation that existed.

At least I got a meeting with APPEA mug man. I never got to meet Minister for Primary Industry and Resources Ken Vowles. While I did eventually meet an adviser, initially the entire office was off limits as such a meeting would compromise the “integrity of the independence of the [current fracking] inquiry.” Vowles wouldn’t meet with the pastoralists that he supposedly represents either, on the same basis.

That would be OK, except Vowles was quite happy to attend an APPEA business breakfast where he “lifted the hopes” of the gas industry. Wonder if he got to keep the mug.

Former Labor chief minister Paul Henderson is now the vice-chair of the NT Petroleum Club. Former CLP chief minister Adam Giles now works for Gina Reinhart, who, rumour has it, wants to “frack the shit out of the land she owns” in the NT. See a pattern?

Not everyone in NT Parliament is like this. There are MLAs and other people in NT politics who are genuinely concerned about the meagre economic benefits from an unconventional gas industry and the risks it would present to water resources. Some are working to maintain the moratorium on fracking. Unfortunately, they’re generally not in high places and they’re certainly not helped by people like Scott Morrison threatening to cut GST payments if the NT doesn’t change its policy on fracking.

I’m not the only one to do a road trip in the NT talking about fracking. NSW Land and Environment Court Judge Rachel Pepper is leading an inquiry that has had public hearings all through the Territory and will no doubt make sensible recommendations.

But the inquiry is taking place in the middle of a Fear and Loathing-style political reptile zoo – more powerful than standard NT crocodiles. Somebody’s been giving gas to these goddamn things. Won’t be long now before they tear the inquiry’s sensible recommendations to shreds. (Apologies to Hunter S. Thompson)

*Rod Campbell is the research director at The Australia Institute