By Kate McClymont
Corrupt former Labor minister Eddie Obeid has been released from jail after serving his sentence of three years and 10 months for misconduct in public office in relation to the grant of a coal exploration licence, which delivered a $30 million windfall to his family.
The 81-year-old left the aged care facility at Long Bay Correctional Complex just after 7am on Wednesday.
Corrupt former NSW MP Eddie Obeid leaves Long Bay jail on Wednesday.Credit: Sam Mooy
Carrying plastic bags of his belongings, Obeid made a short walk to a waiting white Toyota LandCruiser with heavily tinted windows and drove away from the eastern suburbs prison.
He arrived at the Lindfield home, in Sydney’s upper north shore, where his wife Judy Obeid has been living during his imprisonment, about 7.50am. He was joined by a large gathering of the extended Obeid clan, who arrived carrying pastries and treats.
Also sentenced at the same time for their roles in conspiring to commit misconduct in public office were Obeid’s son, Moses, and Obeid’s former Labor colleague, Ian Macdonald.
Moses Obeid, 56, was released from jail last October but then had to serve a period of home detention for a separate charge of lying to the Independent Commission Against Corruption. That case related to the provision of a discount Honda to the then-roads minister Eric Roozendaal, who was not accused of any wrongdoing.
Edie Obeid (right) was escorted to a four-wheeled-drive after leaving Long Bay jail.Credit: Sam Mooy
Macdonald, 76, is not eligible for parole until January 2027.
Obeid snr, once a key powerbroker within the Labor Party, featured in seven corruption inquiries ranging from cafes, coal and healthcare to water licences.
His first, in 2002, was prompted by a Herald investigation, which revealed the then-fisheries minister had attempted to solicit a $1 million donation to the ALP in order to remove planning roadblocks hampering the development of the contentious Oasis project in Liverpool.
No corruption was found, and Obeid later successfully sued the Herald.
More than a decade later, a string of further corruption inquiries found that Obeid was corrupt. In July 2013, the ICAC found that Moses and Eddie Obeid, Macdonald, and others engaged in corrupt conduct in relation to their actions involving the Mount Penny coal mining tenement over their farm, Cherrydale Park, in the Bylong Valley.
Eddie Obeid arrives at Darlinghurst court in 2016.Credit: Daniel Munoz
“Personally, I don’t give a damn,” Obeid told journalists after another three damning findings of corruption by the ICAC were handed down in June 2014. The reports related to his family’s secret interests in Circular Quay cafe leases, a health company, as well as water licences obtained for his family farm.
In his final report into those inquiries, ICAC assistant commissioner Anthony Whealy, KC, a former Supreme Court judge, found that Eddie Obeid, instead of acting for the good of the community as he had claimed, had been involved in “the more mundane, indeed grubby, pursuit of improving his family’s financial position. No amount of window dressing or pretence can disguise this unpleasant reality.”
The Labor kingpin’s unpleasant reality occurred in December 2016 when he was sentenced to five years in jail, with a minimum non-parole period of three years, over his family’s secret interest in the cafe leases.
Cherrydale Park, bought for $3.65 million in September 2007 by the Obeid family.
As a result of yet another ICAC inquiry into the Obeid family’s secret shareholding in infrastructure company Australian Water Holdings, Eddie Obeid will face another trial over that matter next year.
Earlier this year, NSW Crime Commissioner Michael Barnes said, “It’s a sad but unavoidable conclusion” that pursuing a criminal confiscation case against the Obeids over the $30 million they received for their interest in the coal leases was not feasible.
Premier Chris Minns on Wednesday foreshadowed legislative changes to strengthen the NSW Crime Commission’s position in relation to Obeid’s $30 million ill-gotten gains.
“So it’s an area of the law that I think is ripe for change. Recent examples indicate that’s absolutely the case, and you’ll hear more soon,” Minns told a budget estimates hearing.
Cabinet Office secretary Kate Boyd suggested the legislation would address the “evidentiary burden” imposed on the Crime Commission in its efforts to recover criminal assets.
The Australian Taxation Office’s pursuit of Obeid family members – but not Eddie or Moses – for their failure to pay tax on the $30 million is now into its 11th year.
With Max Maddison