Sacked minister’s chief of staff reported family’s ‘substantial’ property portfolio

Sacked minister Tim Crakanthorp’s own chief of staff reported the “substantial” Newcastle property holdings of his boss’s family to the premier after raising repeated concerns with the MP for failing to disclose the issue.

Crakanthorp this week became the first minister in the new government to be sacked after Premier Chris Minns said he had failed to disclose “substantial” private family holdings in his capacity as the minister for the Hunter.

The premier has refused to say how he first became aware of the issue, but told Parliament this week he was concerned Crakanthorp may have breached the ministerial code of conduct multiple times in the four months since the election.

Crakanthorp has said he self-reported the “omission” from his ministerial disclosures.

But the Herald has confirmed it was Crakanthorp’s chief of staff, Elliott Stein, who raised concerns with the premier’s office after repeatedly telling the now-former minister he needed to disclose the significant property holdings of his father-in-law and wife in Broadmeadow, a suburb in Newcastle, as well as other matters that are now before the Independent Commission Against Corruption.

The Herald has learnt that, when Crakanthorp refused to do so, he reported the issue to the premier’s office.

Stein declined to comment when contacted.

It comes after the Herald revealed on Thursday that Crakanthorp was intimately involved in a series of discussions over proposals for a multibillion-dollar redevelopment in Broadmeadow that could have financially benefited members of his family.

Crakanthorp’s wife, Laura Crakanthorp, and father-in-law, Joe Manitta, own a substantial property portfolio in Broadmeadow.