Former New South Wales Labor minister Ian Macdonald will stay in jail until at least 2027 for misconduct in public office involving two mining licences.
In 2022, Macdonald, 74, was convicted after a retrial for issuing the Doyles Creek mine licence to a company chaired by former union boss John Maitland.
Mr Maitland was acquitted of being an accessory to the misconduct.
The men were granted the retrial in 2019, after an appeal court found the judge in their original trial misdirected the jury about the state of mind required for Macdonald to be found guilty.
Justice Hament Dhanji, who presided over the retrial without a jury, found Macdonald wilfully made decisions to benefit Mr Maitland, and there was no justification for his actions.
In sentencing him to 14 years and six-months' jail, with a non-parole period of 10 years, the judge said a high degree of criminality was involved.
"The misconduct occurred at the time the finances of the state were under considerable strain. The damage to the institution of government is a serious loss that affects the entire community," he said.
The Doyles Creek licence was granted by direct allocation in 2008 when Macdonald was resources minister, and the court heard he lost the state tens-of-millions of dollars in fees paid by other mining companies for coal exploration licences.
Around the same, time a tender process saw Chinese company Shenhua pay $300 million for an exploration licence in the Liverpool Plains and a BHP subsidiary pay $91 million for an exploration licence at Caroona.
Justice Dhani said Macdonald had expressed no remorse and the crime was committed 15 years ago, making it a "stale crime".
He said the sentence has been backdated, discounted and influenced by special circumstances, including Macdonald's range of health issues including a large hernia and anxiety, and threats from other prisoners.
The judge noted Macdonald was already concurrently serving a maximum nine-and-a-half-year jail sentence for conspiring with former Labor minister Eddie Obeid and Obeid's son Moses, over a separate mine licence for Mount Penny in the Bylong Valley.
Justice Dhanji said with time already served for misconduct over both mine licences, Macdonald won't be eligible for parole until 2027.
