3 weeks ago
12
February 4, 2026 — 11:13am
The High Court has rejected a last-ditch bid by disgraced former NSW Labor powerbroker Eddie Obeid, his son Moses, and his former ministerial ally Ian Macdonald to overturn convictions flowing from an explosive corruption inquiry into a coal deal.
During a hearing last year, the nation’s top court examined the convictions of the trio over a plot involving a mining exploration licence that eventually delivered a $30 million windfall to the Obeid family.
The court granted the trio special leave last year to appeal against a decision of the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal in 2023, which rejected the men’s bid to overturn their convictions for conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office.
The court dismissed the appeal in a decision on Wednesday.
“The abuse of public trust contemplated by the conspirators was clear – the abuse by Mr Macdonald of his official position with respect to the granting of an [exploration licence] to the financial advantage of the Obeids and their associates,” the court said in its decision.
NSW Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Fullerton found the men guilty in July 2021 of conspiring in 2008 that Macdonald, then state mining minister, would commit wilful misconduct in public office in connection with the grant of the exploration licence.
The licence was granted by Macdonald’s department in 2009 over land including Cherrydale Park, a farm owned by the Obeid family at Mount Penny in the Bylong Valley. The Obeids were subsequently paid $30 million by a coal company to extract them from a joint venture.
Fullerton found Macdonald committed a series of acts of wilful misconduct as part of the conspiracy, including giving Moses Obeid a confidential list of mining companies that might be invited by the government to participate in an expression of interest process for the exploration licence.
The men argued in the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal in 2023 that the Crown had failed to prove they entered into an unlawful agreement that Macdonald would commit specific acts in breach of his ministerial duties of impartiality and confidentiality, and that this was fatal to the Crown’s case.
That appeal was dismissed by the Court of Criminal Appeal in October 2023, prompting the men to launch a High Court challenge.
In its decision on Wednesday, the High Court said Fullerton “correctly characterised the conspiratorial agreement not as an agreement that Mr Macdonald would do individual acts but as an agreement that Mr Macdonald would act if and when the occasion arose”.
“[The] agreement alleged by the Crown ... was an agreement that Mr Macdonald would exercise his ministerial powers with respect to the Mount Penny area in a way that would favour the interests (primarily financial) of the Obeids.
“At the time of the agreement, the conspirators had not agreed upon and probably could not have agreed upon what powers Mr Macdonald would exercise or how he would exercise them to favour the interests of the Obeids.”
The High Court said that “the evidence here was clearly capable of establishing that the conspirators shared a common goal”, namely that an act or acts would be committed by Macdonald in connection with the granting of the licence with the improper purpose of advancing the Obeids’ interests.
“[Macdonald] exercising his powers or using his office to favour the Obeids’ financial interests would be and was a serious departure from the objects of the office he held and the departure was such as to merit criminal punishment,” it said.
“In sum, and as the trial judge found, the scope and object of the agreement comprehended by the conspiracy constituted a gross departure from Mr Macdonald’s responsibilities as the Minister for Mineral Resources.”
In October 2021, Fullerton sentenced Macdonald to a maximum of nine years and six months in prison; Obeid senior to a maximum of seven years; and Obeid junior to a maximum of five years.
Obeid senior was released on parole in August last year. His son was released in October in 2024 and went on to serve home detention for a separate charge of lying to the Independent Commission Against Corruption in a different inquiry.
Macdonald is not eligible for parole until January 2027.
The Morning Edition newsletter is our guide to the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up here.
