Ian Macdonald: The Life and times of the legendary Sir Lunchalot
IAN Macdonald spent his adult life “making up” for the deprivations of his childhood, an obsession that led to an enormously inflated sense of entitlement, according to former staffers.
NSW
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- Corrupt former minister Ian Macdonald sentenced to 10 years in jail
- Eddie Obeid jailed for at least three years over misconduct in public office
IAN Macdonald grew up in the poorest of circumstances — with a single mum and four other children in a housing commission house in Victoria.
And yet those who worked with him in his time as a minister speak of his sense of entitlement.
A sense of entitlement that saw him dubbed “Sir Lunchalot” as he racked up large expense bills — carrying on behaviour he exhibited as a staffer for former Attorney-General Frank Walker in the 1980s, where he was accused of rorting lunch bills.
The sort of entitlement that had him once say to me at dinner when Nathan Rees was premier: “Nathan Rees can’t tell me what to do”.
The sort of entitlement that got him into the trouble which saw him today sentenced to a maximum 10 years jail, with a minimum of seven years non-parole, in the Supreme Court for a dodgy coal mine deal with union mate John Maitland.
Also sentenced today, Maitland will stay behind bars for at least four years.
A former staffer of Macdonald’s long ago related a story to me about a visit the minister took to Mildura with two staff.
The minister at the time insisted that one of the staff buy him an expensive bottle of wine with words to the effect of: “You’re going to go to get me some wine. And you’re going to get me that wine because I grew up poor and I’ve paid for enough things in life and I’m entitled to this.”
The former staffer relates to me now that the then minister’s attitude was “he deserved it because he had had a hard life”.
From anti-Vietnam activist at university to upper house NSW MP to hard Left factional warrior to state government minister to powerbroker to disgraced former minister.
To former minister found corrupt to convicted jailed criminal at age 68.
That is the life of Ian Michael Macdonald.
Through three marriages, one of which produced his only child, daughter Sacha.
With a house at Northbridge and large properties at Orange, but eventually selling up, ending up working as a cleaner as the money ran out while he awaited his fate.
The Daily Telegraph four years ago exposed that Macdonald’s daughter Sacha travelled to work in Mongolia to work for a company, North Asia Resources, which John Maitland, the former union boss, was associated with.
Sacha was employed there in 2009, the year after “Macca” got Maitland and his mates the licence to the Doyle’s Creek “training mine” without taking it to tender. There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing by Sacha.
The granting of the mine licence is the matter which saw Macdonald and Maitland, 71, sent to jail today.
Maitland made $6 million profit in quick time once the mine licence was granted and shares in the company rose; we still don’t have evidence Macdonald made anything from the deal.
But evidence was certainly presented at ICAC that Maitland backed Macdonald in his preselection for the 2007 election and there is a whiff there was a favour around the corner.
Now ICAC has put Macdonald in the big house; just as last year it put his powerbroker mate Eddie Obeid in there.
Ironically, in his maiden speech in 1988, Macdonald railed against the creation by the Greiner government of the Independent Commission Against Corruption.
Macdonald argued such a Commission would not operate under the “rule of law”.
And so it was that the corruption watchdog got him, accusing him of doing a shady deal with union boss John Maitland to earn Maitland quick paper millions for the establishment of a “training mine” without tender at Doyle’s Creek in the Hunter Valley.
ICAC eventually found in 2013 that Macdonald “engaged in corrupt conduct by acting contrary to his duty as a minister of the Crown in granting Doyles Creek Mining consent to apply for the EL in respect of land at Doyles Creek and by granting the EL to DCM, both grants being substantially for the purpose of benefiting Mr Maitland. The Commission finds that, but for that purpose, Mr Macdonald would not have made those grants.”
It took four years for the corruption finding to turn into a jail sentence.
And moments after he was sentenced Macdonald issued a statement flagging his intention to appeal his conviction.
Macdonald and Maitland claimed they were not mates — at court and at ICAC.
But Macdonald appointed Maitland to two statutory roles, including as chairman of the Coal Competence Board.
And current Labor leader and former Left Assistant Secretary Luke Foley gave evidence that he had seen a close relationship between Maitland and Macdonald — at functions and so forth.
After the Doyle’s Creek mining licence was granted, Mr Macdonald and the principals of Doyle’s Creek Mining had a slap up expensive meal at the Catalina Restaurant in Rose Bay in December 2008.
News of the mine was then buried in a Christmas Eve press release.
A friend of Macdonald’s told The Daily Telegraph today: “He was very stoic about his fate. He said at the end of last year that after the years of negative publicity against him, he thought no jury would acquit him and that his fate would be determined by an appeal court.
“He always maintained his innocence and maintained that the decision he made was the right decision and in the best interests of mining workers.”
Macdonald left Cabinet and Parliament in disgrace after an expenses scandal in 2010.
Then began a series of ICAC inquiries, including that he was provided with a prostitute called “Tiffanie” in exchange for a meeting between government energy executives and a businessman.
The Doyle’s Creek inquiry is the first to snare Macdonald criminally.
In that maiden speech after being elected to parliament, Macdonald said: “To my mother, who brought up five children single-handedly and who endured the uncertainty and worry of a parent of a student activist during the hideous Vietnam War era, I offer my congratulations.”
It was a sad statement, almost more about Macdonald congratulating himself than his mother.
And a sad end today for the man with the sense of entitlement.
Someone from the Coalition government told me recently that when they came to power, the bureaucrats had all the documents ready to present to the watchdog to show Macdonald’s wrongdoing.
In 2009, I wrote that Macdonald appeared to have done a dodgy deal over the mine.
The story read: “The state Minister for Primary Industries, Ian Macdonald, who has been dubbed Sir Lunchalot over the wine council controversy, has been accused of doing more favours for mates after he approved a coal mining exploration licence for a mine run by a former union boss, John Maitland.”
At the time, Macdonald said: “I have met John Maitland several times in a professional capacity over the last few years and I can assure you he is an industry leader and expert in his field.
“His involvement is a minor factor. The key element is the strength of this proposal that was developed over a couple of years with the department; a proposal that has gained considerable support from industry and education sectors alike.”
A spokesman for Doyle’s Creek mining said at the time there was “no special deal”.
A corruption watchdog, jury and judge have adjudicated differently now. And the government has legislated to strip him of his parliamentary pension.
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