THE eight months since NSW Premier Chris Minns sacked Newcastle MP Tim Crakanthorp from cabinet and referred him to the Independent Commission Against Corruption have likely been hard ones for the city's state representative.
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Losing the Hunter portfolio, Mr Crakanthorp also lost the confidence of his party's leader over failure to declare the property interests of family members.
"He has breached the ministerial code," Minns said in August last year, announcing Mr Crakanthorp's demotion.
"I've lost confidence in his ability to be a minister in my government."
The government, which swept to power after seizing the opportunity when Gladys Berejiklian's own ICAC furore prompted her to resign, was quick to take a firm stance on any perception of impropriety.
Relief, then, was likely the overwhelming emotion for Mr Crakanthorp when ICAC terminated its investigation and declared it was "satisfied that there are no reasonable prospects of finding Mr Crakanthorp's conduct is sufficiently serious to justify a finding of corrupt conduct".
Yet the ICAC report itself, released publicly by the NSW Cabinet Office on Thursday, is hardly a clean slate for Mr Crakanthorp.
The corruption watchdog found he knowingly failed to declare Broadmeadow properties "held by him, his wife and his in-laws" and this failure "constituted a breach of public trust".
While they offered insufficient grounds for ICAC to make any finding of corruption, such assessments of Mr Crakanthorp's actions are likely cold comfort to those who he represents in Macquarie Street. Mr Minns on Thursday ruled out a cabinet return for Mr Crakanthorp.
The Newcastle MP started that same day thanking his supporters. In an updated statement later in the day, though, he admits it is "clear he should have done more".
While Mr Minns' office has made clear he won't expel Mr Crakanthorp from the Labor party altogether, Hunter voters will be entitled to question how forcefully their representative will truly be able to prosecute the region's agenda.
This is an important period for Newcastle's future, and years in power offer the NSW Labor party an opportunity to cement its enviable status as the party to beat on election day. Without achievements to campaign upon in the run to the next state election, voters may question what such loyalty has garnered them.
What happens from here is a matter for Mr Minns and Mr Crakanthorp. Both must endeavour to ensure the state seat of Newcastle and its voters are not made to pay for the self-described shortcomings of its local member's conduct from now until 2027.
Such political expediency would be a damning indictment on the party's failure to put the best interests of the state first during an enormous period of upheaval.
They, after all, hold the power.
