New South Wales Premier Chris Minns has sacked Skills Minister Tim Crakanthorp over a “serious breach of conduct” involving his family land holdings.
Minns held a snap press conference this afternoon to announce Crakanthorp would be stood down from cabinet after the minister failed to supply information about “substantial” private family land in the Hunter region.
Minns said Crakanthorp didn’t reveal these holdings until recently in a breach of the ministerial code of conduct.
Crakanthorp, the Member for Newcastle, was the minister for the Hunter and held the cabinet position of minister for skills, TAFE and tertiary education.
He was elected in 2014.
“I formed the view that Minister Crakanthorp failed to comply with his obligations as a minister, he failed to do it properly (by) providing potential conflicts of interest to the NSW Cabinet Office and through them, to me as the premier of NSW,” Minns said.
“Minister Crakanthorp will not be a minister in my government.”
Minns said Crakanthorp’s property holdings were disclosed to the government but properties owned by his wife and in-laws were not.
He added the “size and scale” of the property holdings should have been disclosed to the government and there were obviously “more than a couple” of properties.
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The government was made aware of the property holdings earlier this week and it became clear a breach of the ministerial code had occurred when Crakanthorp detailed all the commercial real estate held by his family.
Minns said it doesn’t “really matter” what Crakanthorp’s rationale for not declaring the property holdings was, he should have revealed it to the cabinet.
The premier said he has referred the information to the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), the anti-corruption watchdog.
“I have referred concerns that I have that he may have acted in matters that have rendered a material benefit to him or his family as a result of the decision he made over the past three months,” Minns added.
Crakanthorp later released a statement confirming he had “self-reported a breach of the Ministerial Code of Conduct to Premier Chris Minns and resigned as a Minister in the NSW Government”.
“I will continue as the Member for Newcastle,” he said.
“I will not be making further comment at this time.”
In the interim, Deputy Premier Prue Car will take on the skills portfolio while Police Minister Yasmin Catley will take on the Hunter portfolio.
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