Editorial
Updated ,first published
Updated ,first published
The NSW Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions has dropped a charge of misconduct in a public office against former Labor minister Eddie Obeid, despite the Independent Commission Against Corruption finding his alleged role in a water deal was corrupt.
Obeid’s District Court trial – his third trial – was due to start on April 28, but this week the ODPP withdrew the charge.
Obeid, a figure of controversy for decades who served two terms in prison after being convicted of offences over secret cafe leases at Circular Quay and a coal exploration licence, walks away and the people of NSW are none the wiser.
A spokesperson for the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions said the reasons for the decision to drop the charge against Obeid were subject to legal privilege.
Obeid was charged with misconduct in public office in 2022 alongside two other former Labor ministers, Joe Tripodi and Tony Kelly, over a business deal involving Australian Water Holdings and a lucrative public-private partnership with Sydney Water.
Charges against Tripodi and Kelly over the AWH deal were dropped in December. Kelly stood trial the previous October, but the jury was discharged after it was unable to reach a verdict. Tripodi had been due to stand trial on that charge last month but is now set to be tried on a separate public office misconduct charge in October.
The ICAC recommended charges against the Labor trio after its Operation Credo investigation into the water deal.
That was nine years ago. It has been four years since Obeid, Tripodi and Kelly were first charged. Twelve years ago, Operation Credo also dramatically damaged the other side of politics.
Liberal Barry O’Farrell resigned as NSW premier after admitting to unintentionally misleading the ICAC over a $3000 bottle of Penfolds Grange from AWH; federal assistant treasurer Arthur Sinodinos, who earlier was AWH deputy chairman, temporarily stood aside and the NSW Liberal Party refunded some $75,000 worth of “tainted donations”.
Last August, Obeid was released from jail after serving three years for granting the coal exploration licence for which his family received a $30 million benefit. In January, after a Herald investigation established an Obeid family trust had concealed a $30 million stake in a Bankstown development site, the NSW Crime Commission froze the property assets of Obeid Corporation Pty Ltd.
In NSW, the glacial pace that authorities took to act resulted in the three alleged protagonists walking away with barely a scratch. Certainly, their reputations were tainted – but given the findings of the ICAC, they clearly never cared much for the public anyway.
Court undertakings involving political corruption are complicated but the failure to put Obeid and Co. in the dock leaves many questions unanswered about what really happened all those years ago.
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CLARIFICATION
This editorial has been updated to clarify that Barry O’Farrell’s conduct was unintentional.
The Herald’s View – Since the Herald was first published in 1831, the editorial team has believed it important to express a considered view on the issues of the day for readers, always putting the public interest first.
