Apologies to Adrian Mole, but Eddie Obeid’s diary is making for much better reading in the wake of the ICAC corruption hearings in NSW.
In an insightful article in The Australian Financial Review last Friday, Michaela Whitbourn and Neil Chenoweth lay out the explosive and undeniable connections between Honest Eddie and Ian MacDonald, NSW Minister for Mates Rates, prior to a coal exploration licence being granted to Honest Eddie’s Mount Penny Coal joint venture with another of Ian MacDonald’s “associates”, Greg “It’s all just a coincidence” Jones in 2009.
Eddie Obeid’s diaries show the former NSW Labor minister arranged to meet central figures in an allegedly corrupt coal deal at key dates in the negotiations. The diary entries raise questions over his claims he had no involvement in brokering the $60 million deal.
The parliamentary diaries, from 2007 to 2009, show the power of the notorious backroom operator’s contact list. There were streams of meetings with Labor politicians and property developers.
The diaries, which were tendered by the Independent Commission Against Corruption on the final day of its hearing into the coal deal last Thursday, provide new insights into the factional leader’s meetings in May 2009, when an allegedly corrupt deal was struck between mining company Cascade Coal and the Obeid family.
Dacka's Razor 