It's a case, after all, where the system won. Cheats did not prosper, in the short or long term. There's no reason to thank Sinodinos for that, but, on what's been said, he appears more a fool than a crook.

It was not obvious that the con would fail to work, either as a Labor or a Liberal rort. On form, one should have feared the worst. There was Eddie Obeid and his family, with Joe Tripodi in the wings. Businessmen on the make, with few scruples about greasing the right palms to get what they wanted, which was, as ever, the transfer of public wealth to a few smarties. There were Labor ministers beholden to Obeid, and people willing, if needs be, to corruptly fake cabinet documents. And that's merely in the Labor era.

But the con failed. Because of a few honest public servants, who resisted threats and intimidation from some politicians. And because a few politicians not in on ''the joke'' were (rightly) suspicious of those who were. Perhaps premier Kristina Keneally, once accused of being a puppet of Obeid and Tripodi, was clearly separating herself from her alleged sponsors:hers was the hand that stopped the rort for the time being.

So there was plan B: wait until the Libs get in. The plotters had realised the inevitability of this - by a fabulous dodge they had even used public money to donate to Liberal coffers. On form again, one should not have been optimistic for the public interest. A new government, in Sydney more than elsewhere, inevitably sees a caravan of lobbyists, urgers and influence pedlars claiming to be ''owed''.

Even before the victory, Arthur Sinodinos, a former Treasury officer, able adviser and chief of staff to John Howard, was made board chairman. He was an enthusiast for the idea of private sector involvement in infrastructure development, if with little idea of how dodgy his company was. Sinodinos was at that stage treasurer of the NSW Liberals - and was soon to be president, before being given a casual vacancy in the Senate.

Perhaps Sinodinos needed the money - $200,000 a year for perhaps 100 hours of work. The business was a bit odd - it had 10 staff and five directors, all with six or (in one case) seven-figure salaries. At one stage five lobbyists - each boasting of his links with the Liberals - were also on the payroll.

Australian Water Holdings was originally set up under another name and with quite different shareholders as a non-profit private-public partnership to accelerate water infrastructure development in north-west Sydney in association with the utility Sydney Water.

Those into whose hands the company had fallen (including, secretly, Obeid) found a profitable way of defrauding Sydney Water with fraudulent management charges, so that exorbitant salaries and even ''administrative expenses'' such as donations to the Liberal Party could be simply billed to it. Those in the company claimed AWH had an exclusive contractual deal for further jobs with Sydney Water; this claim was at the margins of arguability, but almost certainly legally wrong, although Sinodinos may well have believed it. The chief task for the new chairman was to help get a private-public partnership deal with the NSW government.

Sinodinos was also promised 5 per cent of the company at no cost, on top of his piffling salary. If a deal could be secured, he was promised a bonus of another 2.5 per cent of the share capital.

To pick up from counsel assisting the inquiry, Geoffrey Watson, SC, ''If the PPP came through Mr Sinodinos would have enjoyed a $10 million or $20 million payday.

''It's quite transparent that Mr Sinodinos' true role in AWH was to open lines of communication with the Liberal Party and there will be evidence that he tried to do so.

''But AWH retained other lobbyists, it retained the firm of Jackson Wells and paid it plenty, it retained Tim Koelma who was very closely associated with [former NSW

Liberal minister] Chris Hartcher on a monthly retainer of more than $7000. In April 2007 it retained Paul Nicolaou, the Liberal Party fund-raiser, on a monthly retainer of $5000. In January 2011 it also retained the former Liberal Party MP Michael Photios on a monthly retainer of $5000 … Di Girolamo proposed that should the PPP be approved Mr Photios would receive a $1 million bonus …

''At that time AWH was suffering a cash flow crisis so severe that it was unable to pay its tax commitments as they fell due. Little wonder … there were massive payments to be made to executives, non-executives, and lobbyists.

''From 2010 Di Girolamo [the major shareholder] pursued the Leader of the Opposition, Barry O'Farrell relentlessly … [He] was seeking a commitment for the Coalition that it would support his PPP when it came to government. Mr O'Farrell entertained the idea but made no commitment. The most Di Girolamo got was a couple of loosely worded letters of support, letter encouraging private enterprise, encouraging development, that sort of thing.

''When the Coalition was elected to power, AWH ramped things up. There was a lot of contact with O'Farrell and the relevant minister, Greg Pearce. At one stage Mr Pearce unsurprisingly complained he was being over-lobbied. But I must say it was working, the proposal was consistent with Liberal Party policy and the noises from the politicians were generally positive.''

For all that, the pressure ultimately did not work. The best efforts of lobbyists using their power, influence and access to the party machinery and ministers could not sell an idea that was so fundamentally dodgy. AWH did do a deal with Sydney Water - Sinodinos helped arrange it - but that seems to have been straightforward, not a development of the con.

A few new but now ex-Liberal ministers who busied themselves pushing AWH's (and even Obeid's) interests are now among those in the frame for corruption. Despite the continuing weaknesses of the system, it seemed that O'Farrell, close advisers and bureaucrats with an eye to public interest, were able to resist at least some special pleaders, conmen, and people claiming, for profit, inside influence on the Liberals. Should Sinodinos be thanking the heavens that sometimes minders save people from themselves?

Perhaps one can take heart. I wouldn't. Though O'Farrell has been reducing the power of lobbyists, developers and influence pedlars in its inner council, the fight is far from over. Nor can Abbott be nonchalant - as witness the Nash case, and the plethora of old Howard ministers prostituting their reputations and access to anyone who asks.

Like any number of grand old men of Labor (why are they always men, not women?) who think it perfectly appropriate that they have post-political careers representing enemies of their party.

Jack Waterford is Editor-at-Large.

jack.waterford@fairfaxmedia.com.au