Former Northern Territory deputy chief minister and mining minister Nicole Manison has accepted a new job with a United States-owned fracking company she recently spruiked while in government.

Ms Manison retired from politics at the NT election in August, and, less than three months on, has announced she has taken on a role with gas company Tamboran Resources.

She will be Tamboran’s new vice-president of government relations and public affairs.

Tamboran is operating in the Beetaloo Basin, a burgeoning fracking hub in the territory outback, which was previously subject to a moratorium by Ms Manison’s Labor government.

 In a statement on social media on Monday, Ms Manison said: “Tamboran’s work to develop gas in the Beetaloo will create jobs and help deliver affordable, reliable and viable power for Territorians and Australians as we transition to more renewable energy in the future.

“It will also deliver royalties to the NT government so they can invest in important services and infrastructure Territorians deserve and need,” she said.

“I am looking forward to this new challenge and working with the great team at Tamboran to build a stronger Northern Territory for everyone.”

The NT’s ministerial code of conduct prohibits former ministers from taking up work within six months of leaving office if that work relates to any of their former ministerial portfolios.

While Ms Manison left NT politics in August, she quit her role on the frontbench almost a year ago, in December 2023, after a failed attempt to become chief minister.

Earlier this year, Ms Manison’s former Labor government signed a major gas supply contract with Tamboran without a tender, the cost of which has not been made publicly available.

As mining minister, in 2023 Ms Manison spruiked Tamboran in the media, talking up the company’s potential to create “more jobs and more opportunities for all Territorians”.

Ms Manison was the NT’s deputy chief minister for more than seven years and also held the portfolios of mining, industry and trade and renewables and energy in that time.

Integrity expert says NT’s six-month time limit ‘just looks wrong’

In taking up her new role in the resources sector, Ms Manison follows a similar post-politics path to her former boss and NT chief minister, Michael Gunner.

Mr Gunner joined mining mogul Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest’s Fortescue Future Industries company in 2022, six months after he resigned as NT government leader.

He has since left that role.

Before Mr Gunner, former Country Liberal Party chief minister Adam Giles took up a role with cattle giant Hancock Agriculture after his 2016 election defeat.

Centre for Public Integrity director Geoffrey Watson SC described the NT’s six-month time limit for former ministers taking up jobs in industries they once oversaw as “ridiculous” and “absurdly short”, saying the quick turnaround “just looks wrong”.

“If you’re in the cabinet room when decisions are being made, you are necessarily made privy to important commercial in confidence material about these kinds of projects. That information after six months is still current,” he said.

Mr Watson said the fact Ms Manison had not broken any laws was “not a perfect ethical test”, and said her new position raised questions about the previous government’s policies.

“I’m not saying that anything wrong has happened, but because of the perception created, it’d be quite appropriate to reopen all of the decision-making in relation to Tamboran,” he said.

“The position here is that the look is so wrong, so bad, that Ms Manison should either withdraw from that employment or Tamboran should recognise that this is inappropriate and terminate her.”

Greens member for Nightcliff Kat McNamara has recently introduced a motion in parliament to implement a lobbyist register, and also wants a three-year prohibition on former ministers taking up jobs in industries related to their old portfolios. 

They said Ms Manison’s new Tamboran role “sends a really poor message”.

“So Tamboran Resources was a major donor to both Labor and the [Country Liberal Party] and we saw that Labor government greenlight fracking and now we’ve seen our previous minister for mining walk straight into a job with that same company,” they said.

“We need to see politicians focused on getting the best outcomes for the community and not looking forward to how they’re going to benefit when they finish their roles in government.”

Kat McNamara also called for the details of the Tamboran gas supply contract — which was made after Ms Manison had left the mining portfolio — to be made public.

“The relationship between [politicians and industry] is far too close and people are sick of it,” they said.

Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro said work to establish an NT lobbyist register, which last year she pledged to establish, was underway. 

Ms Manison has been contacted for comment, and Tamboran Resources declined to comment.