Former New South Wales Labor minister Tim Crakanthorp’s own chief of staff reported that his boss had failed to disclose “substantial” holdings in his family’s Newcastle property empire, leading to Crakanthorp’s sacking from the cabinet and referral to the corruption watchdog this week.
Guardian Australia understands the Newcastle MP’s chief of staff, Elliot Stein, raised concerns with the premier, Chris Minns, after telling Crakanthorp he needed to disclose additional properties owned by his father-in-law and wife. There is no suggestion of wrongoing by them.
Crakanthorp said he came forward about the properties this week in an act of “self-reporting”, but the premier refused to back those claims. Government sources on Thursday night confirmed Stein had sounded the alarm.
Minns this week sacked his minister for the Hunter and referred him to the Independent Commission Against Corruption after learning of a “large number” of previously undisclosed properties owned by Crakanthorp’s family.
The former minister’s failure to promptly disclose those properties was found to be a breach of the ministerial code of conduct.
Stein declined to comment when contacted by Guardian Australia on Friday. Crakanthorp’s office said on Thursday that he had no further comment to make at this time.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Minns suggested he had been acting on a tip-off when he sent Crakanthorp a letter requesting more information about his family’s property holdings, which prompted the MP to disclose them.
“Information was given to me that I’m not going to go into relating to the number of properties that Minister Crakanthorp held,” Minns said.
“That prompted a formal letter from me to him in relation to the properties that he did hold,” he said.
Minns has flagged there were possible subsequent breaches related to the Newcastle MP’s time in cabinet and said he holds concerns Crakanthorp may have been acting for “private interests” in his capacity as minister for the Hunter.
“I do have concerns about that. I’m being honest about it. And that’s why we referred it to the Icac,” Minns said.
Some of the properties in question are in the Newcastle suburb of Broadmeadow, near the proposed Hunter Park development, and have the potential to rise in value if the major entertainment and sporting precinct is built.
The state government and local council are eyeing off the surrounding area for residential development and the possibility of extending the light rail from the coastal city’s CBD to Broadmeadow.
It was revealed in parliament this week that Crakanthorp lobbied his cabinet colleagues, including the sport minister, Steve Kamper, to act on the Hunter Park development, which received $6.7m from the previous NSW Coalition government for a business case in 2021.
The business case was due to be handed to the government earlier this year. In June, Crakanthorp was reported as having told a Property Council event that he had been in contact with Kamper about Hunter Park and it was “very much a focus for our government”.
“I’m knocking on the door of the minister every day, I can tell you,” the Newcastle Herald reported Crakanthorp as having said.
Crakanthorp is also on the record saying he would lobby to have the potential light rail corridor preserved while the state government makes a final decision on where it will be built.
The Hunter Park precinct and Newcastle light rail extension are among the projects being urgently examined by a cabinet office review announced by Kamper on Thursday in light of the revelations about Crakanthorp’s property ties to the region.
The premier has defended not having known about Crakanthorp family’s extensive real estate holdings even though they were reported back in 2014 when the then local councillor was running for the Newcastle by-election.
Minns on Thursday said it was unreasonable to expect cabinet to keep a close eye on the property interests owned by MPs’ parents-in-law and that compliance could only work if ministers were responsible for adhering to the ministerial code.
