Obeid put Labor minister's up at ski chalet, ICAC hears:
FORMER minister Ian Macdonald stayed at the Obeid family's luxury ski chalet for free, with the man once dubbed 'Sir Lunch a lot' also having his meals covered by Eddie Obeid's sons, a corruption inquiry has heard.
And Mr Obeid also listed federal employment minister Bill Shorten, former state minister Carl Scully, state opposition leader John Robertson and former senator Mark Arbib as guests at the chalet.
The revelation Mr Macdonald stayed at the Perisher retreat, and had his meals paid for, came in the final questions for the former Labor powerbroker.
Mr Obeid angrily brushed off suggestions the decision to let Mr Macdonald stay there was so he would make "favorable decisions for the family" and "create obligations."
"We're generous people and we like to share our generosity with our friends," he said.
Mr Shorten has denied attending the property.
A spokesman for Mr Shorten said: “He has never been to Perisher. He has never visited a lodge at Perisher. And he can’t ski.”
Earlier Mr Obeid snapped at ICAC counsel assisting Geoffrey Watson SC, saying "I've spent more money than you've earned in a lifetime."
The former Minister had finished being examined by ICAC's counsel assisting after more than a day of grilling and angry exchanges which even saw him being threatened with a contempt charge.
After more long and roundabout answers by the one time Labor powerbroker ICAC Commissioner David Ipp snapped, and warned him he would remain in the stand for "as long as it takes."
The corruption inquiry is entering its final days of investigations into whether former resources minister Ian Macdonald rorted the reopening of applications for mining exploration licences in the Bylong Valley to the potential $100 million benefit of the Obeids.
"I don't mind if it takes several days of listening to Mr Obeid make speeches but I will insist that he eventually answer the question," Mr Ipp said.
Tensions between Mr Obeid and Geoffrey Watson SC, the counsel assisting the inquiry, were once again running high as the frustrated witness snapped at his questioner "I will answer as I see fit, not as you want me (to)."
The father of nine was shown copies of his detailed family finances, with the corruption watchdog alleging Mr Obeid and his wife Judith are beneficiaries of their Family trust to the tune of millions of dollars- despite his claims it is his children who are the beneficiaries.
He said he "didn't know" how his wife, who doesn't work, "had the capacity...to repay a $1.7 million debt to the family trust".
When Mr Watson said a $1.5 million payment from the family company into his account was "shonky", Mr Obeid retorted "I don't believe my family does anything shonky."
The inquiry heard Mr Obeid claims he doesn't know if Judith Obeid makes an income and therefore pays tax on
that, nor could he explain how she could "pay back the money" their documents say she owes the trust.
Mr Obeid and Mr Macdonald had 399 mobile calls in 2008, the year the exploration licence tender was reopened- but the defiant former factional warlord said that was simply him dealing with "a very important contact" at a time "all hell had broken loose" in the ALP.
In his second day today on the witness stand, Mr Obeid has been questioned about whether he had other sources of income that were not declared in the parliamentary pecuniary interest register.
The register, shown to the inquiry, states between July 2009 and June 2010 Mr Obeid declared the only property he owned was a house in Matrit, Lebanon and an apartment in Port Macquarie.
He declared his only source of income was his role as a member of parliament, and that he had not received any "income from a trust", or from a parnership, or under "any other contract, agreement or arrangement".
Mr Obeid senior has been asked to explain why he did not declare the Obeid Family Trust.
The register records, dating back a decade, fail to reveal the existence of the Obeid family trust or its investments in harbourside eateries at Circular Quay, property development and water services companies.
The inquiry has heard already $18 million from one trust has been distributed to Obeid's nine children, with at least $15 million coming into the Obeid coffers in 2011 and 2012 from their sale of shares in mining tenements.
Mr Obeid senior's son-in-law Sam Achie, who is an accountant for Obeid Corp and trustee of a family trust, earlier told the inquiry that the family held their fortune in six trusts.
Commissioner David Ipp asked Mr Obeid if the trust operated by the motto of "all for one and one for all".
"Yes we look after each other if they need money," Mr Obeid senior said.
Yesterday, on his first day in the Independent Commission Against Corruption hot seat, Mr Obeid was hit with the allegation that he, his family and former resources minister Ian Macdonald "engaged in a criminal conspiracy ... to effect a fraud on the people of NSW".
The secretly recorded phone call between Mr Obeid and Mr Macdonald's close friend Greg Jones was late into the former Labor powerbroker's several-hour stanza in the witness stand, during which he was threatened with contempt of court and repeatedly chastised for "deliberately not answering questions and interrupting".
The state's most crucial corruption inquiry to date is now in its final days of investigating whether Mr Macdonald created a mining tenement in the Bylong Valley in 2008 to "confer" for the Obeid family a profit of up to $100 million. He is also accused of passing on inside information to the family about coal mining exploration licences in the area.
The inquiry has been told the phone calls in May 2011 between Mr Jones and Moses and Eddie Obeid came as Cascade Coal tried to buy them out of their joint mining venture ahead of a $500 million takeover which was at risk because of "the whiff" surrounding the family's involvement.
But after Mr Obeid told ICAC, "I have never been asked to a meeting with Greg Jones about Cascade" he was met with the phrase from Geoffrey Watson SC, the counsel assisting the inquiry, that has become the hallmark of the state's most explosive inquiry: "Listen to this tape."
The hearing was played a three minute call between the pair where Mr Jones tells him his sons "are acting a bit stupidly about all this" and asks if he is available tomorrow, to which Mr Obeid replied he had to be in parliament and was trying to confirm his resignation from politics. It directly contradicted evidence he gave just moments earlier when he said: "I was never asked to that meeting, nor did I attend." Mr Watson asked: "You've been at pains to try and put it at a distance between you and the boys on these, haven't you? (You) tried to save your own skin?"
"Not at all, that's absolute rubbish," Mr Obeid said before adding he was "very proud" of his sons and what they achieved for the family business.
Mr Obeid admitted he hadn't told the ALP he had stood to make millions from the land but said any financial benefit came from them "being smart enough to have an exit strategy".
"If a minister created a mining tenement over a friend's property, and that friend was a member of parliament, and that effect of the creation of that mining tenement was to confer tens of millions of dollars upon that member of parliament, then ethically speaking shouldn't the member of parliament disclose that?" Mr Watson asked.
"If an MP knowingly did that, I'd think it's unethical," Mr Obeid replied. "We negotiated a benefit ... we just happened to be in the middle of two mines and were smart enough to have an exit strategy."
Asked if the family had been lucky in its dealings, Mr Obeid replied: "I'd say it was good planning."
The inquiry heard Mr Obeid's diary, tendered to ICAC, had an entry in February 2008 saying "(Michael) Costa, (Joe) Tripodi, possibly Ian Macdonald Cherrydale." But the 69-year-old insisted his "good political ally and political friend" had never visited the family farm.
Mr Macdonald created the Mt Penny tenement, against the advice of his department, in June 2008, ICAC was told. Mr Watson said Mr Macdonald changed the plans of the tenement so that it covered three properties owned by the Obeid family "like a blanket."
Mr Obeid's son Paul - whose office contained confidential maps found by ICAC investigators during a raid in November 2011 - will be the inquiry's next witness.
Mr Macdonald is due to take the stand later this week.
