Ian Michael Macdonald (born 7 March 1949) is a former Australian politician and currently undergoing court proceedings and was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council from 1988 to 2010 representing the Labor Party. Between 2003 and 2010, Macdonald held a range of ministerial responsibilities in the Carr, Iemma, Rees, and Keneally ministries. Macdonald, who joined the Labor Party in 1972, had his membership of the party terminated in 2013 for bringing the party into disrepute. After the Independent Commission Against Corruption found that he acted in a corrupt manner, Macdonald was charged with the offence of misconduct in public office for corruptly issuing lucrative mining licences at Doyles Creek in the Hunter Valley, found guilty by a Supreme Court jury in March 2017, and sentenced in June 2017 for a period of ten years, with a minimum custodial period of seven years. Macdonald appealed against the verdict and, on 25 February 2019, his conviction was quashed by the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal who ordered a retrial. He was granted bail and released from custody on the same day. In July 2021 Macdonald was found guilty of misconduct in public office on separate charges relating to the granting of a lucrative coal-exploration licence over Cherrydale Park, in the Bylong Valley, owned by the family of Eddie Obeid. Early career and background Raised as one of five children by his mother in a single parent household, Macdonald graduated from La Trobe University with a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in history and worked for the Australian Council of Overseas Aid, and a range of Commonwealth and State government agencies before his election to parliament in 1988. At the time of entering Parliament, he was a farmer near Carcoar in the Central West of New South Wales. Political career Elected to the Legislative Council in 1988, Macdonald was appointed Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries in 2003 and then the Primary Industries portfolio and a range of other portfolios in the first and second Iemma and Rees ministries including Natural Resources, Mineral Resources, State Development, and Energy. However, granted extraordinary powers by Labor State Conference on 17 November 2009, Rees sacked Macdonald (along with others) from the ministry because of Macdonald's efforts to destabilise Rees in his position. Macdonald then played a large part in the sacking of Rees in favour of Keneally. Macdonald was previously a member of the New