The decision to award a mining licence on land owned by the Obeid family was "in the interests of NSW", former Labor minister Eddie Obeid's trial has been told.
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Obeid, 76, his 50-year-old son Moses, and former NSW ministerial colleague Ian Macdonald, 70, have pleaded not guilty in the NSW Supreme Court over an alleged coalmining conspiracy between 2007 and 2009.
The Crown alleges the Obeid family stood to earn $60 million from a plot to have Macdonald grant a coalmining exploration licence at Mount Penny, in the Bylong Valley near Mudgee, where the Obeids owned land.
But Moses Obeid's barrister on Wednesday said Macdonald's decision to offer a coal exploration licence at Mount Penny to small mining companies was "logical" and "in the interests of NSW".
"The fact certain people might benefit is a natural consequence of promoting the economy of NSW," Maurice Neil QC said as he finished his opening address.
The exploration licence for the open-cut thermal coalmine was cancelled by the NSW government in 2013.
"If it had got up, there would have been large royalties which would have been to the great benefit of the people of NSW," Mr Neil said.
The defence lawyer said the crown case, alleging nine acts of misconduct in public office, had fundamental issues.
He said prosecutors couldn't establish the alleged overt misconduct actually occurred and would need to meet the high threshold of disproving any innocent hypotheses.
"We submit the Crown cannot establish the conspiracy alleged," Mr Neil said.
"(A conspiracy) is more than an intention, it's more than an understanding ... it has to amount to an agreement."
Former NSW premier Morris Iemma, whose Labor government included Macdonald and Obeid, is expected to given evidence on Wednesday as a Crown witness.
Australian Associated Press
