THE pay-off for unseating NSW premier Morris Iemma was a new contract for a company with alleged links to the Obeids, a corruption probe has heard.
Retired engineer Peter Phillips has told the NSW corruption watchdog he was tasked with certifying costs run up by infrastructure company Australian Water Holdings (AWH), in which corrupt ex-MP Eddie Obeid's family allegedly had a secret 30 per cent stake.
The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) has been told of an agreement whereby AWH would build sewerage and water infrastructure in Sydney's northwest, and Sydney Water would pay the company's administrative costs.
But the state-owned utility ended up paying for lavish salaries, limousine rides and legal fees, the inquiry has heard.
Giving evidence to the commission, Mr Phillips said he became "uncomfortable" with ballooning AWH management costs and wondered if the involvement of Liberal party fundraiser Nick Di Girolamo and Eddie Obeid Junior in AWH could explain the cost hikes.
"I was told fairly firmly that political pressure was going to be applied very heavily to Sydney Water and they were going to be forced to come into line, and the implication being, I better not get in the middle of that," Mr Phillips said.
He said the "clincher" came in July 2008, when AWH finance manager Vass Kuznetsov told him "the Terrigals were going to move on Morris Iemma and have him removed as premier, and that part of the payment for their support of this was going to be a water licence for Australian Water Holdings".
Mr Iemma stepped down in September that year.
"I realised there were very powerful influences being wielded around the place," Mr Phillips said.
He said he understood the "Terrigals" to be a group including Mr Obeid and fellow former Labor MP Joe Tripodi.
But Mr Obeid's lawyer Stuart Littlemore QC urged Mr Phillips to admit he "overegged" his evidence about the 2008 meeting.
"Sensational stuff, wasn't it? The way you tell it here," Mr Littlemore said.
"That's how it happened," the witness responded.
Earlier on Tuesday, former Sydney Water chair Tom Parry told the inquiry he warned former NSW premier Kristina Keneally's office that he would consider referring to ICAC an allegedly doctored cabinet minute, which recommended a public-private partnership with AWH, if it was adopted by the NSW government.
The minute was a "complete distortion" of the Department of Premier and Cabinet's original recommendation not to go ahead with the partnership, Dr Parry said.
"I thought this had been killed off," he remembers telling an advisor to Ms Keneally about the minute.
"Obviously we needed to put a stake through the heart."
The inquiry continues.
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