QRC CEO Michael Roche said "certain politicians and Sydney shock jock", most likely independent Senator Glenn Lazarus and Alan Jones, had been given free rein in the media, "unconstrained by facts".
Roche said it was not in dispute that Bender did not support the developing gas industry in the fertile Darling Downs region, nor that he was passionate about farming and the importance of protecting farming in his region.
"George often made his views known to the Queensland Resources Council forcefully and directly," Roche said.
"If he saw or heard something I had said in the media with which he disagreed he was not afraid to jump on the phone and let us know. These conversations tended to conclude with us agreeing to disagree, but he was always prepared to debate our view.
"We are saddened by his death but we are not going to join in the claims and conjecture about his tragic passing and his state of mind."
While Roche gave the family his sincere condolences, saying he would miss Bender's "passionate contribution" to the public debate, he said Lock the Gate and other groups were distorting the facts about how the gas industry and its water impacts and land access are regulated.
"The Queensland Water Act sets down very clearly the obligations of gas tenure holders to make good impairment of private bore supplies that result from gas activities," Roche said.
"This make good requirement may be achieved by making alterations to the bore, establishing a replacement water supply, or by some other measure, which is agreed in advance.
"Gas companies have fully complied with those requirements, including for some stock bores on one of Bender's properties which had not been used for more than a decade."
There is no debate that two of Bender's wells ran dry due to drilling in adjacent third-party farms, and he was afraid of plans by Origin Energy and Arrow Energy to drill multiple wells on his property.
There has also been much heat and very little light on the issue of land access, Roche said.
"Queensland introduced the Land Access Framework in 2010 that provides for a mandated agreement between landholders and resource companies on how resource activities will be conducted and impacts compensated for," Roche said.
Under the Land Access Code there are have been more than 4500 conduct and compensation agreements struck between gas companies and landholders and it is believed that there have been only two gas cases ever referred to the Land Court.
Bender's family has said he wanted no gas infrastructure on his properties, and he felt besieged by Origin, which had reportedly threatened to take him to the Land Court to force him to accept drilling on the farm his family has worked for generations.
Roche said that in 2014-15 the Queensland gas industry contributed $22 billion directly and indirectly to the state's economy, representing 7% of the state's entire gross regional product.
That compares with total value of Queensland's primary industry commodities of $14.86 billion for 2013-14.
The QRC claims the industry supported an estimated 114,000 jobs and purchased goods and services from 3600 Queensland businesses.
In 2011, the Australian Bureau of Statistics recorded there were a total of 28,435 farms covering 81% of Queensland, however more than 60% of the state is drought-declared, which is impacting on the value of farm gate production.
