Opinion
Chris Minns still has questions to answer on Tim Crakanthorp
Michael McGowan
ReporterFaced with the first political crisis of his government, Premier Chris Minns got on the front foot.
In a hastily arranged press conference on Wednesday afternoon, he declared that Newcastle MP Tim Crakanthorp had been sacked as a minister because of a “significant” breach of the ministerial code.
NSW Premier Chris Minns still has questions to answer on the Tim Crakanthorp saga.Credit: Dion Georgopoulos
In short, the issue was that Crakanthorp had failed to declare the “substantial” private land holdings of his wife Laura and father-in-law Joe Manitta, giving rise to Minns’ concern he may have “acted in matters” in which there was conflict between his public duties and private interests.
Minns said that he found out about the breach the same day, and had referred it to the Independent Commission Against Corruption.
So far, so good. As Minns pointed out during a fiery question time on Thursday, it was rare under the Coalition for scandals of this nature to be revealed by the government itself.
But there are still things the premier won’t tell us. Minns, for example, won’t say how that property portfolio came to his attention. Crakanthorp insists it was an “oversight” which he himself reported. The premier seems to dispute that, but insists he can’t say how he became aware of the issue due to the ICAC referral.
Tim Crakanthorp (left) and Chris Minns pose together shortly after this year’s election.Credit: Instagram/@timcrakanthorp
Newcastle, a city dominated wall-to-wall by Labor, can be a political viper’s nest. Theories about a political inside job on Crakanthorp – many of them misplaced – are already circulating.
Unless Minns is protecting a confidential source, and he hasn’t said he is, it isn’t clear why he won’t explain how the information came to him.
Nor will he say why he’s concerned Crakanthorp might have acted in conflict with his public duties and private interests.
This matters because it goes to the heart of what Crakanthorp did or didn’t do.
The Herald revealed on Thursday that Crakanthorp was involved in meetings and discussions about a massive residential and entertainment redevelopment in Broadmeadow, near where his extended family has significant land holdings. If they go ahead, they could significantly boost the value of the land.
But Crakanthorp’s interest is not unusual. The MP for Newcastle and Minister for the Hunter should be across a massive reshaping of that city’s inner suburbs like the one proposed in Broadmeadow.
Certainly, he should have disclosed those interests. Conflicts exist all the time, the issue is having a structure in place to manage them. But the question really is whether Minns believed Crakanthorp actually did something to tilt the scales inappropriately.
The premier says that’s a question only ICAC can answer. Maybe. But a more fulsome explanation of what it is he is concerned about would at least offer Crakanthorp a chance to publicly defend himself.
Which brings us to Crakanthorp’s explanations.
In a speech in parliament late on Wednesday the Newcastle MP insisted the failure to disclosure his family’s holdings had been an “oversight” discovered because of his own “self-reporting” and offered a confusing explanation of a series of disclosures he appears to have made.
The most bizarre thing though is why he didn’t do it immediately.
That his father-in-law Joe Manitta has a serious property portfolio is a surprise to exactly no one in that city. Indeed, it’s not even the first time this has been an issue for Crakanthorp.
Back in 2009, as a city councillor, he declared a “non-pecuniary, non-significant interest” during a debate on a proposal to cut the city’s train line because of land Manitta owned on the rail corridor.
That disclosure saved him some blushes years later when he was Labor’s candidate for Newcastle in 2014. At the time he was criticised after advocating for a bypass in the city which would have required the purchase of land owned by Manitta.
Minns should be congratulated for setting a high benchmark on ministerial responsibility. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t questions to answer.
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