Wallsend MP Sonia Hornery says lord mayor Nuatali Nelmes is a "very ambitious person" who could nominate for the state seat of Newcastle if it becomes vacant.
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Ms Hornery was asked by 2GB host Ray Hadley on Friday whether Cr Nelmes would "seize the opportunity" if Newcastle MP Tim Crakanthorp was forced out of the Labor party by an Independent Commission Against Corruption investigation into his previously undisclosed family property interests.
Premier Chris Minns has said Mr Crakanthorp will be "stepped aside" from the party if ICAC decides to investigate, raising the possibility he will lose party endorsement for the 2027 NSW election.
Mr Crakanthorp beat Cr Nelmes in a rank-and-file pre-selection vote in 2014 after a previous ICAC investigation into campaign donations led to former Liberal MP Tim Owen's demise.
Asked about Cr Nelmes' political aspirations on 2GB, Ms Hornery said: "The lord mayor, Nuatali Nelmes, is a very ambitious person, but I wouldn't know anything about this at this stage."
Cr Nelmes fired back at Ms Hornery on Friday afternoon, saying it was "in incredibly poor taste to be fuelling speculation on her state colleague's future".
"I'm not interested in playing these political games," she said.
Ms Hornery has been mired in a bitter war of words with Cr Nelmes and other Labor councillors over what she terms the "privatisation" of the council's five pools.
The public infighting has been widely interpreted in the party as the result of deputy lord mayor Declan Clausen's desire to inherit Ms Hornery's seat.
Labor sources said a pre-selection contest for Newcastle could launch another internal power struggle between the "two camps" in local Labor politics, one aligned to Cr Nelmes and the other to Mr Crakanthorp and federal MP Sharon Claydon.
One source said they expected Cr Nelmes to be challenged for the "prized" position of a seat in state Parliament if Mr Crakanthorp exited the scene.
Some of the properties belonging to Mr Crakanthorp's wife and in-laws are close to the government's proposed Hunter Park redevelopment precinct at Broadmeadow and in an area earmarked by the state for significant housing growth.
Title searches have revealed Mr Crakanthorp's wife, Laura, bought a commercial property at 30 Broadmeadow Road in February and her family, the Manittas, own seven other properties in the street.
Company searches show Ms Crakanthorp's parents, Joe and Santina Manitta, are directors of Sanlar Pty Ltd, which owns an eighth property in Broadmeadow Road.
Sanlar and another Manitta property, Santdell Pty Ltd, own three adjacent properties in King Street, Newcastle, four at Weston and others at Mayfield North, Adamstown Heights and Anna Bay.
The Newcastle Herald does not suggest the Manitta family or Ms Crakanthorp have done anything wrong.
The state Opposition turned up the pressure on Labor to fully explain the circumstances of Mr Crakanthorp's property disclosures after media reports the MP's chief of staff reported them to Premier Chris Minns.
Sydney media reported the former Minister for the Hunter's chief of staff told Mr Minns about the extent of the Crakanthorp family's "substantial" property holdings in Newcastle after the MP refused to do so.
Mr Crakanthorp told Parliament on Wednesday evening that he had "self-reported" breaches of the ministerial code of conduct after becoming aware he had omitted properties from his formal disclosures.
"In recent days I've made a subsequent disclosure to the Premier's office to self-report an omission on my ministerial disclosures," he said. "I would like to note that this oversight was identified due to my own self-reporting."
Mr Minns appeared to contradict that assurance on Thursday when he said he had been provided with information about the properties, prompting him to write a formal letter to Mr Crakanthorp.
"Information was given to me that I'm not going to go into relating to the number of properties that minister Crakanthorp held," he said.
The Premier sacked Mr Crakanthorp from his cabinet on Wednesday and referred the matter to the ICAC.
It looks like Mr Crakanthorp may have misled the Parliament.
- Mark Speakman
Opposition leader Mark Speakman questioned whether Mr Crakanthorp had misled Parliament.
"There's a clear contradiction between Tim Crakanthorp's account of his disclosure and the Premier's account," he told the Herald on Friday.
"Mr Crakanthorp told Parliament he'd self-reported, but Chris Minns said he'd received a formal complaint from someone else.
"It looks like Mr Crakanthorp may have misled the Parliament.
"The Premier needs to explain that contradiction and what he's going to do about it."
The Herald approached Mr Crakanthorp and Mr Minns for comment.
Upper Hunter Nationals MP Dave Layzell said the government should be open about the circumstances surrounding Mr Crakanthorp's sacking.
"We all know the ICAC will do an investigation and that will take as long as it takes, but we do need to know what's gone on," he said.
Mr Layzell said more information was "coming to light all the time" in the media and it was incumbent on the Premier to keep the public informed.
"There was an opportunity for the Premier yesterday to actually just explain what had all happened and get it all out there, because the reality is now the information's coming out anyway," he said.
"I think in the next few days we'll know the extent of it and whether he's [Mr Crakanthorp] misled the Parliament."
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