A multibillion-dollar redevelopment of a Newcastle suburb will form part of an urgent review being undertaken by the New South Wales government after the premier raised concerns the sacked cabinet minister Tim Crakanthorp may have acted for “private interests”.
The Newcastle MP was stripped of his ministries and referred to the state’s corruption watchdog after Chris Minns was told about multiple previously undisclosed properties owned by Crakanthorp’s wife and family across the Hunter.
Crakanthorp said he came forward about the properties this week in an act of “self-reporting”. But the premier has refused to back those claims. Multiple sources with knowledge of the situation pointed to infighting in Labor’s Hunter branches, stemming from long-running tensions over a bitter preselection contest involving Crakanthorp nine years ago.
It has been revealed Crakanthorp, who was the minister for the Hunter, lobbied his cabinet colleagues, including sport minister Steve Kamper, to act on the Hunter Park development that received $6.7m from the NSW government for a business case in 2021.
Members of Crakanthorp’s extended family own multiple properties near the proposed redevelopment site in the Newcastle suburb of Broadmeadow.
The project is one of many being urgently reviewed by a cabinet office review announced by Kamper on Thursday, alongside the Newcastle-Sydney rail line upgrades, Newcastle airport capacity expansion and Newcastle light rail extension.
The minister’s failure to promptly disclose the properties was this week found to be a breach of the ministerial code and Minns has flagged there were possible subsequent breaches related to Crakanthorp’s time in cabinet.
“I do have concerns and I do have to report to the House that there may have been matters over the preceding four months that may have caused other breaches or cause for an investigation by the corruption watchdog, particularly in relation to those undisclosed properties and his actions as a minister,” Minns told parliament on Thursday.
“That’s a matter for the Icac to investigate. We’ve referred it to them as per our responsibility and I want them to do their job.”
In June, Crakanthorp was reported as having told a Property Council event that he had been in contact with Kamper about the Hunter Park sporting and entertainment precinct and it was “very much a focus for our government”.
“We’ve just got to wait for … Kamper to get a briefing on it, see it, and I’d love to talk to him about requesting it,” the Newcastle Herald reported.
“I’m knocking on the door of the minister every day, I can tell you.”
family owns a large swathe of properties in Newcastle, some of which had appeared in media reports as far back as 2014.
Further publicly available documents show Crakanthorp’s in-laws have worked as property developers in the region for 40 years.
Guardian Australia does not suggest any wrongdoing on Crakanthorp’s part or his in-laws’ part in relation to their properties.
The premier on Thursday rejected the suggestion he should have or could have known about the member’s in-laws’ properties outside the disclosure.
Guardian Australia understands Crakanthorp has made multiple changes to his ministerial disclosure since the election.
After an earlier change, the former minister claimed he learned of more properties owned by his in-laws in Broadmeadow, which “represented a conflict of interest”.
“I appreciate and firmly believe that ministers must be held to the highest standards and we would like to note that this oversight was identified due to my own self-reporting,” he told parliament late on Wednesday.
The opposition leader, Mark Speakman, supported the premier’s referral of the matter to Icac but said the government needed to tell the public which projects it was concerned may have been affected.
“It’s no good just saying this is now off to Icac. We’ll hear back from Icac in a couple of years,” he said.
“The public are entitled to know how this government has been run, and what decisions are potentially impacted by the member for Newcastle’s conflicts.”
Parliament rose for the week on Thursday night and will return in a fortnight.
