Paul Obeid in a file picture. Credit:Tamara Dean Off camera, an ICAC investigator asks Mr Maroon: "There's nothing else in there, money or anything valuable, in that safe?" "Footy tickets," Mr Maroon laughs uproariously. "Depends if you're a footy fan or not." The inquiry has previously heard that the amount in the safe was $31,300 and that when the family first took over the cafe leases, corrupt former MP Eddie Obeid and his wife Judy would each receive weekly cash payments of $1000 from the cafe takings. But Damian Obeid, the couple's eldest son, said he could not recall his father receiving regular payments. Mr Maroon is unable to give evidence at the inquiry because of ill health.

The inquiry is examining allegations that Eddie Obeid corruptly used his position to advance the business interests of his family. The commission is examining the Obeids' interests in retail leases at Circular Quay, water licences covering their family farm in rural NSW and consultancy business Direct Health Solutions (DHS). Eddie Obeid's son Paul said the family hid their business interests to avoid being "targeted" by disgruntled media organisations that had been sued for defamation. He said that the family's hidden investment in DHS, which manages absenteeism, might have saved the government "tens of millions of dollars". When Paul Obeid was asked if it was "pure altruism", Assistant Commissioner Anthony Whealy, QC, interjected: "That doesn't sound like you."

Paul Obeid told the inquiry he was "meant to be" the second-eldest of Mr Obeid's five sons but "my brother Moses obviously thinks he's up in the pecking order". He claimed he did not tell his father about the family's interest in DHS when he first spoke to him about the business. Some time after, in August 2005, Mr Obeid snr gave a letter from DHS to then treasurer Michael Costa seeking a meeting about the business. Mr Costa met representatives from the company in October 2005 and August 2006. At the time of the first meeting, an Obeid family company then held all the shares in the business. Asked if Michael Costa was a close political ally of his father, Paul Obeid said: "He was ... he still is."

But Paul Obeid said he and his four brothers did not discuss business decisions with their father. "My father has been out business ... for quite some time. I think there were Telex machines when he was in business," he said. "My brothers and I, we make our decisions. There's no reason to consult our father because he doesn't have anything to contribute." Paul Obeid said his father was not always "completely in the dark" but he wasn't involved in all their business decisions and he "wouldn't read a paragraph ... he's a big picture guy". He said the Obeid boys were advised to hide their business interests, including using a front company to hold their shares in DHS because of media scrutiny at the time. "At the time between 2005 and the present actually we were in a number of defamation cases with a number of media outlets," he said.

"It was more when we had the Olympic pole contract. I think you might remember ... it was front pages of one of the newspapers, and accusations with Graham Richardson and my brother and I in a pole business. That was the Streetscape matter." Asked it it would have been the "kiss of death" to Direct Health Solutions winning government contracts if Mr Costa had known of the Obeids' involvement, Paul Obeid said: "What I think now, after what's happened to my family, of course it would be the kiss of death. We can't even go to the corner shop without [attracting scrutiny]." The hearing continues.