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WHEN he launched Labor’s Newcastle transport plan last week, Opposition Leader John Robertson put a Stewart Avenue bypass back on the state agenda.
What he didn’t mention at the time, although he says he had known about it ‘‘for several years’’, was that his candidate for Newcastle Tim Crakanthorp had a potentially damaging conflict of interest.
Mr Crakanthorp’s parents-in-law own an 8000-square-metre development site at Wickham which would likely need to be purchased by the government if the bypass went ahead.
It’s created an awkward moment for the Opposition Leader and Mr Crakanthorp who have run an active and vocal campaign about honesty, transparency and integrity in government following the recent ICAC inquiry and the stink over the ‘Stop Jodi’s Trucks’ campaign that sunk former Labor MP Jodi McKay.
There is no suggestion that Mr Crakanthorp or Mr Robertson have done anything wrong, but several quarters claim the land connected to Mr Crakanthorp should have been declared publicly by him when Labor announced its policy. One source said Labor’s announcement alone could have already impacted on property prices in the area.
Labor’s plan to investigate the Stewart Avenue bypass resurrects earlier plans to link the Cowper Street roundabout at Carrington with Selma and Hunter streets via a new road and rail overpass. If it went ahead, the road would travel along what’s known as the Bullock Island rail corridor, dissecting the substantial landholdings owned Mr Crakanthorp’s in-laws Joseph and Santina Manitta.
As a Newcastle councillor, Mr Crakanthorp declared a ‘‘non-pecuniary, non-significant interest’’ when the council debated one of the many proposals to cut the rail line in 2009. He removed himself from the debate and took no part in deliberations.
Since then, the plan has been off any party’s transport agenda, until Mr Robertson put it back on the radar last week.
Neither Mr Crakanthorp or Mr Robertson wanted to engage on the matter on Wednesday.
Mr Crakanthorp issued a statement saying ‘‘I put this on the public record several years ago’’.
Mr Robertson would only say the same. ‘‘This has been on the public record for several years,’’ he said through a spokesman.
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