Eddie Obeid has lost his last-ditch bid to be freed from prison, after the High Court knocked back the former NSW Labor minister's application for leave to appeal against his conviction and sentence for misconduct in public office.

The 74-year-old was jailed in December 2016 for a maximum of five years after a Supreme Court jury found him guilty of misconduct for lobbying a senior bureaucrat over his family's secret business interests at Circular Quay. He will be eligible for parole on December 15, 2019.

Eddie Obeid outside the Darlinghurst Supreme Court on December 15, 2016, shortly before he was sent to prison for a maximum of five years. Credit:Daniel Munoz

Obeid's defence team had mounted the novel legal argument that the NSW Parliament, rather than the courts, had exclusive jurisdiction to hear cases involving allegations of misconduct in public office.

His barrister, Bret Walker, SC, told the High Court in Sydney on Friday members of the NSW Parliament could not be "sanctioned by the criminal law" for failing to act in the public interest. He said such conduct was instead "sanctioned politically".