Ten months ago, Tim Crakanthorp stood beside then opposition leader Chris Minns at the UGL factory at Broadmeadow to talk up Labor's commitment to make trains in NSW.
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What the future premier might not have known at the time was that the two men were surrounded by commercial real estate owned by Mr Crakanthorp's in-laws.
The Manitta family owns eight properties in Broadmeadow Road and Christo Road, a few hundred metres from the government's proposed Hunter Park redevelopment precinct.
One of the properties, at 30 Broadmeadow Road, was bought by Mr Crakanthorp's wife, Laura, from a Manitta entity in February this year.
It is no secret the Newcastle MP's father-in-law, Joseph Manitta, and other Manitta family members have held large parcels of land in Newcastle for more than two decades.
It is also no secret the previous and incumbent state governments have planned to redevelop large parts of Broadmeadow for housing.
The Hunter Park redevelopment, first floated in 2017, has been on Infrastructure Australia's priority list since 2021 and is widely regarded as a city-shaping project.
The Coalition government announced in December that Broadmeadow was one of 10 suburbs in NSW, and the only one outside Sydney, earmarked for expedited housing rezonings under a new $73 million program.
The Newcastle Herald reported at the time that the owner of the UGL land, GDI Property Group, was in talks with the state government about redeveloping the 16-hectare site.
Fast forward five months and Mr Crakanthorp was sworn in as a minister of the Crown in the new Minns government.
Mr Crakanthorp told Parliament on Wednesday night that he had "unfortunately omitted" a property owned by his wife in his initial disclosure of interests under the NSW Ministerial Code of Conduct.
He has not said which of his wife's properties was omitted.
He told Parliament he had included in his first disclosure that his father-in-law owned property at Broadmeadow but at a later date he became aware "the properties owned within Broadmeadow by my in-laws also now represented a conflict of interest".
He revealed he had spoken with his in-laws, "assembled a full list" of their property holdings and provided these to the Premier "in recent days".
He said he had self-reported the breaches and done nothing "inappropriate".
Mr Minns said on Wednesday that he had asked Mr Crakanthorp to resign from cabinet because he had not disclosed the properties "promptly" and had "clearly" breached the ministerial code.
It cannot have escaped Mr Crakanthorp's notice the damage property interests can have on a political career.
He was elected in 2014 at a by-election called after Newcastle Liberal MP Tim Owen admitted to lying to the Independent Commission Against Corruption about taking cash from property developer Jeff McCloy to help fund his 2011 election campaign.
Mr Minns has expressed concerns that Mr Crakanthorp's private family property interests could have intersected with his "actions as a minister", and this is why he has referred the matter to the ICAC.
The Premier has not said which "actions" he is referring to, instead leaving it up to the ICAC to investigate if it sees fit.
As the Opposition pointed out in Parliament on Thursday, Mr Crakanthorp has been quoted extensively saying he has been "knocking on the door" of Lands and Property Minister Steve Kamper every day asking to see the business case for Hunter Park.
Mr Crakanthorp has not yet explained why, in a climate of public debate about the future of Broadmeadow as a housing hub, he did not disclose immediately all of his extended family's property holdings in the suburb.
Did he not know about all of them, including one held by his wife? Was he too late to realise they could pose a conflict of interest?
As Minister for the Hunter, he clearly had a role in advocacy and policy-making on matters relating to development in the region.
The Ministerial Code of Conduct, which operates under the ICAC Regulation 2017, says a minister must not knowingly conceal a conflict of interest from the premier or "take any other action in relation to a matter in which the minister is aware they have a conflict of interest".
The code says a conflict of interest arises if a minister's decisions or actions "could reasonably be expected to confer a private benefit on the minister or a family member of the minister". It defines a family member as a minister's spouse, child, sibling, parent or parent-in-law.
The Newcastle Herald does not suggest Mr Crakanthorp or his family members knowingly concealed conflicts of interest or that he gained any private benefit from his extended family's property holdings.
The Manitta family interests at Broadmeadow include properties at 12, 30, 49, 51, 63 and 65 Broadmeadow Road and 8 and 12 Christo Road totalling 7900 square metres.
Manitta entities also own properties in Wickham, Carrington, Mayfield West, Adamstown Heights, Merewether, Maryville and Islington.
The Wickham property is a light industrial building on 8000 square metres of land in Albion Street. The Carrington property is the Young Street Hotel.
The Crakanthorps' family home is in Hamilton South, and title searches show Laura owns an apartment in Darby Street, Cooks Hill.
Mr Crakanthorp included another apartment in Darlinghurst on the parliamentary register of member disclosures in August last year, but it is unknown if he and his wife still own the property.
He also included a warehouse at an undisclosed address owned by the company he co-owns with his wife called Carson & Yvette Pty Limited after the couple's middle names.
- Additional reporting by Donna Page
Michael Parris
Michael Parris reports on politics for the Newcastle Herald. He started at the Herald in 1994 after working in the ABC Newcastle newsroom. Michael spent much of his career as a sub-editor before moving into political reporting in 2017. He was a finalist in the Sports Australia national media awards for his stories about a male-only tennis club in Newcastle. He has covered NSW and federal elections, state and federal budgets and local politics. He has also written extensively about the COVID-19 pandemic with a special focus on data analysis and the effects of lockdowns on the Hunter community.
Michael Parris reports on politics for the Newcastle Herald. He started at the Herald in 1994 after working in the ABC Newcastle newsroom. Michael spent much of his career as a sub-editor before moving into political reporting in 2017. He was a finalist in the Sports Australia national media awards for his stories about a male-only tennis club in Newcastle. He has covered NSW and federal elections, state and federal budgets and local politics. He has also written extensively about the COVID-19 pandemic with a special focus on data analysis and the effects of lockdowns on the Hunter community.
