Former NSW Labor minister Ian Macdonald "maliciously" abused his power when in office, a court has heard.
Mr Macdonald and ex-union boss John Maitland are charged with wilful misconduct in public office and being an accessory to the misconduct, after the Doyles Creek mine licence, in the Hunter, was directly allocated to a company Mr Maitland chaired while Mr Macdonald had the mining portfolio in 2008.
The men are facing a judge-alone retrial after their original convictions for the charges were quashed on appeal in February 2019.
In his opening address, Crown Prosecutor Philip Hogan, told the Supreme Court, Mr Macdonald's job as a minister was to pursue the best interests of the people of New South Wales and to perform his duties honestly.
Instead, Mr Hogan said he acted with the 'improper motivation' of wanting to give Mr Maitland preferential treatment by not seeking expressions of interest or going to a competitive tender.
The prosecutor said Mr Macdonald's actions lost the state tens of millions of dollars in up-front fees.
"The crown case is that this is a category of misconduct in public office that might be identified as a malicious exercise of official power, or of misfeasance by abuse of a discretion," Mr Hogan said.
"He showed favouritism to Mr Maitland and to the company Doyles Creek Mining Pty Ltd."
Mr Hogan said Mr Macdonald wilfully misconducted himself in public office and Mr Maitland encouraged the misconduct.
The court heard the offences were committed around the time that Mr Macdonald was about to retire from parliament and in the lead-up to a state election.
The prosecutor said witnesses observed interactions between Mr Macdonald and Mr Maitland over several of the years as "convivial".
An appeal court found the jury in their first trial was misdirected on the state-of-mind element of Mr Macdonald's offending.
The men were jailed over the Doyle's Creek mine licence in 2017, but were acquitted in 2019.
Mr Macdonald, now 73, is currently serving another jail sentence after being convicted in October last year along with Eddie and Moses Obeid in a separate trial over a coal licence in Bylong Valley.
Mr Maitland, now 76, is on bail and representing himself.
Both men have pleaded not guilty.
Their trial before Justice Hament Dhanji continues.
