A former Labor politician has denied spinning a story to financially benefit an ex-union boss with a lucrative coal exploration mining licence.
Ramesh Rajalingam in his NSW Supreme Court opening address on behalf of Ian Macdonald at his judge-alone retrial said his client showed no preferential treatment in awarding the contract.
"But for any improper motive or purpose, Mr Macdonald would not have gone ahead," Mr Rajalingam said.
The then state mineral resources minister granted a coal exploration licence in NSW's Hunter Valley in 2008 to Doyles Creek Mining which was chaired at the time by John Maitland.
Macdonald, 73, who has pleaded not guilty to misconduct in public office, is accused of favouring the interests of the company by directly allocating the licence without inviting expressions of interests or a competitive tender.
Maitland, 76, has pleaded not guilty to being an accessory before the fact, accused of encouraging or assisting the minister's alleged misconduct.
Prosecutor Philip Hogan said the state lost significant financial contributions from other interested companies bypassing due process.
The Department of Primary Industries estimated a loss to NSW "in a range of $50 to $100 million".
The crown case is that Macdonald worked with the former Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union national secretary to inflate the significance of an "underground training mine" and downplay the large commercial interests of the site.
Mr Rajalingam denied the pair worked together to "spin" a story about the public benefit the mine would serve.
The barrister asked Justice Hament Dhanji to consider the way in which politics plays out, the advice Macdonald received and the various options available to him.
He submitted a difficult issue for the judge was determining whether Macdonald's conduct "requires criminal punishment" if the Crown's case is taken in its most favourable version.
Maitland representing himself flatly disputed the allegations.
"There was no relationship, there was no debt, and there was no need for Mr Macdonald to repay me for anything," he said in his opening address.
"The whole process of what we were doing was legitimate and something that was going to benefit the state."
Mr Hogan said Macdonald in 2006 told key Labor figures including now-Prime Minister Anthony Albanese that he had pre-selection support from the CFMEU's mining division before planning to retire during the following term.
Maitland denied the ALP politician owed him for this alleged political debt, saying the CFMEU's support was relatively unimportant compared to others, while the pair's relationship was not "a close friendship," he said
The trial continues.
