At some point before he was sworn in as a minister of the Crown, Newcastle MP Tim Crakanthorp drafted a note to his wife about buying property in Broadmeadow Road.
"You have always asked your father if you could buy a warehouse on Broadmeadow Road ... if you can't buy that one can you buy the one next to the mower shop?" the note said.
"The warehouses on Broadmeadow Road are going to be worth a lot more than the warehouse at Wickham and the warehouse at Sandgate is as they are going to develop all the land behind the panel beaters shop and also the Broadmeadows [sic] sporting precinct."
The Independent Commission Against Commission uncovered the "sticky note" attached to Mr Crakanthorp's parliamentary email account during its investigation into whether he had failed to declare conflicts of interest relating to his family's property interests in Newcastle.
ICAC said attached metadata pointed to Mr Crakanthorp creating the note on March 30, five days after Labor won the state election, though Mr Crakanthorp maintained it had been written much earlier.
It is unclear if Mr Crakanthorp ever sent the note, which alludes to the government's proposed Hunter Park redevelopment and separate government plans to increase housing density in and around Broadmeadow.
Property records show Mr Crakanthorp's in-laws, the Manitta family, own seven commercial properties near the mower shop at 59-61 Broadmeadow Road and his wife, Laura, bought 30 Broadmeadow Road from her family for $1.25 million in February last year.
ICAC noted in its investigation report, published on Thursday, that, regardless of the date it was written, "the note shows Mr Crakanthorp was cognisant of the proposed urban renewal of the precinct and that it was likely to benefit the Manitta family".
Premier Chris Minns and his senior ministers were sworn in on March 28, but the rest of cabinet, including Mr Crakanthorp, did not assume their portfolios until April 5.
It is unclear whether Mr Crakanthorp knew on March 30 that he would be named Minister for the Hunter.
Sources have told the Newcastle Herald that the job was intended for Swansea MP Yasmin Catley, but she ended up with the police ministry.
Nonetheless, Mr Crakanthorp was a member of the newly formed government on March 30.
The former Coalition government's housing plans for Broadmeadow were no secret.
It had identified Broadmeadow as one of 10 locations, and the only one outside Sydney, earmarked for fast-tracked rezonings.
The Herald reported on December 6, 2022, that the Perrottet government had discussed rezoning the former Goninan railway workshop in Broadmeadow Road with Newcastle council and a developer.
Government plans to redevelop 63 hectares of Crown land as the Hunter Park sport, entertainment and residential precinct date back to 2017.
'Aware of conflict'
The investigation report shows Mr Crakanthorp was aware the family properties posed a potential conflict of interest with his ministerial duties after he was sworn in.
He told investigators that he had sought a meeting with Cabinet Office general counsel Kathryn Boyd on April 19 last year because he "realised there were a lot of properties and ... potential conflicts with my in-law (sic)".
Twelve days after that meeting he made his first disclosure of interests as a minister, noting his wife and in-laws owned property in Broadmeadow Road but "as these properties are near to but not directly impacted by the proposed precinct, I do not believe that they pose a conflict of interest in the course of my ministerial duties".
It is hard to understand how Mr Crakanthorp reached this conclusion given he had already encouraged his wife to buy property in the area because of the potential profits to be made.
The sticky note demonstrates that he knew the value of the properties would be "directly impacted".
Ministers make more detailed disclosures than backbenchers and are governed by a special code of conduct because they have decision-making powers and participate in key, often confidential cabinet discussions.
Nine days after making his first ministerial disclosure, Mr Crakanthorp had a meeting with Transport Minister Jo Haylen in his role as Minister for the Hunter where the pair discussed light rail extensions to Broadmeadow, Hunter Park and the "Broadmeadow investigation area".
He met with Housing Minister Rose Jackson and lord mayor Nuatali Nelmes on May 30 to discuss "rezoning and affordable housing contiguous to the Broadmeadow Road properties".
On June 22, he had a second meeting with Ms Haylen where he was advised the only viable route for extending light rail was to Hunter Stadium, inside the proposed Hunter Park precinct.
Knocking on the door
The ICAC report also refers to a Herald report about Mr Crakanthorp's appearance at a Property Council lunch on June 16 where the MP told the audience he had been "knocking on the door" of the relevant minister, Steve Kamper, "every day" to receive briefings on Hunter Park.
On June 30, Mr Crakanthorp made a second ministerial disclosure detailing his actions as minister and declaring the properties owned by his wife and in-laws.
In this disclosure, he indicated he would abstain from briefings, cabinet discussions and advocacy to ministers about the Broadmeadow plans.
Mr Minns wrote to Mr Crakanthorp on August 1 reminding him of his obligations as a minister and calling on him to make sure he had identified all the family land holdings.
Mr Crakanthorp again updated his disclosure the following day with a list of Manitta properties. Mr Minns sacked him from cabinet and referred the matter to ICAC.
The Herald has spoken to many Newcastle people who are full of praise for Mr Crakanthorp's advocacy on their behalf.
He is perceived as an amiable and benign local representative who perhaps is not suited to the cut and thrust of politics.
The extraordinary outburst by his mother-in-law, Santina Manitta, to reporters outside her Merewether home after news of the scandal broke evoked feelings of sympathy for the MP, whose father-in-law, Jo Manitta, ran for the Liberals in the 2017 Newcastle local government election.
Mr Crakanthorp's note to his wife, however, paints a different picture. It casts him as a property player keen to cash in on government plans for Broadmeadow.
Speculating on property is a national pastime, but Mr Crakanthorp is a member of Parliament and, as a minister, had specific powers and obligations which set him apart from an ordinary citizen.
ICAC concluded that his "knowing" failure to disclose his conflict of interest did not amount to corruption, which gave Mr Minns the leeway to keep him in the party room.
It must have been a close-run thing.
The ICAC Act provides that corrupt conduct is "any conduct of a public official or former public official that constitutes or involves a breach of public trust".
The Commission was "not satisfied that there are reasonable prospects of finding that Mr Crakanthorp's conduct is sufficiently serious to justify a finding of corrupt conduct".
ICAC noted Mr Crakanthorp had not influenced decisions nor advocated strongly during his meetings with other ministers, the public interest had not been compromised and Mr Crakanthorp had made at least some disclosures.
But it also found he had "substantially breached" the ministerial code of conduct and breached public trust.
As the Premier noted, the ICAC report makes for "sobering reading".
In the end, ICAC's conclusions boiled down to the "degree of seriousness" of Mr Crakanthorp's actions.
Some of Mr Crakanthorp's submissions to ICAC investigators bordered on the comical.
At one point he argued he had participated in the ministerial meetings "solely for the purpose of enabling him to identify and manage his potential conflict of interest".
This position, summarily rejected by ICAC, has echoes of the spurious legal arguments mounted by Dennis Denuto in The Castle.
"The Commission is satisfied that Mr Crakanthorp knew before the first meeting on 10 May 2023 that he had a conflict of interest. It was not necessary for him to attend that or any of the subsequent meetings in order to identify that he had a conflict," ICAC noted drily.
Investigators also rejected Mr Crakanthorp's contention that he "did not have to declare anything that may be a conflict of interest until it actually became one".
Mr Crakanthorp mounted this argument despite the Cabinet Office writing to him on April 12 advising him of his obligations under the code and the meeting a week later with Ms Boyd and his chief of staff, Elliott Stein, at which his responsibilities were "further explained".
The MP's subsequent actions appear to be, at best, the height of incompetence.
Mr Crakanthorp apologised to the Premier this week and expressed his "deep regret" to the public.
The whole affair is another setback for the city, which has not been visited by a NSW premier for three-and-a-half years.
Mr Crakanthorp was one of five Hunter cabinet ministers until his sacking.
Will he ever have the ear of the Premier or other senior ministers when it comes to advocating for his constituents?
Hopefully, the government can now get on with the Hunter Park and Broadmeadow strategies without the cloud of corruption hanging over them.
And only time will tell if Mr Crakanthorp's survival in the party calms the ferocious politicking inside Newcastle Labor ranks since his position became precarious.
