Lake Macquarie MP Greg Piper has tabled legislation before state Parliament seeking to scrap controversial penalties on Newcastle developing a large-scale container terminal.
In introducing the bill to Parliament on Thursday, Mr Piper slammed the former Baird government's 2013 port privatisation deals, which delivered a $6.82 billion windfall but locked Newcastle out of the freight market until 2064.
"It's a simple bill with a simple intent, but that simplicity belies the fact it will provide a profound benefit to NSW into the future," he told Parliament.
"The intent is to fix a very bad deal brokered by a former government to the great detriment of the state's economic potential and, in particular, that of northern NSW and the Hunter region.
"It was a deal that has become a dead weight on the state's future.
"It was a deal that put the Hunter's potential into a straitjacket in order to deliver a short-term windfall."
Northern Tablelands Nationals MP Adam Marshall, who has spoken publicly in support of allowing Newcastle to develop a freight terminal, described the proposed legislation as a "great bill" when moving to suspend debate on the matter.
Mr Marshall and Upper Hunter Nationals MP Dave Layzell have flagged they could cross the floor to vote in favour of the bill.
Neither the Coalition nor the Labor opposition has committed to supporting the legislation, but Mr Piper has forced Premier Dominic Perrottet's hand on the issue six months before the state election.
The government now must either defend the deals in the face of mounting evidence they are hurting the NSW regional economy or agree publicly to unpick part of the Coalition-engineered privatisations.
The lease agreements for Botany, Kembla and Newcastle include "commitment deeds" which penalise the Port of Newcastle consortium financially if it develops a rival container terminal before 2065.
Port of Newcastle, which is 50 per cent Chinese-owned, paid $1.75 billion for a 98-year lease. The NSW Ports consortium, which includes an Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund, paid $5.07 billion to lease Botany and Kembla.
"Premier Mike Baird set out to privatise all three of the state's public ports," Mr Piper said.
"It was a deal which netted the government an extraordinary $6.82 billion, a staggering result.
"As is often the case with these deals, the devil was in the detail.
"What wasn't clear at the time was the reason NSW Ports was willing to pay so much for Botany and Kembla.
"That was they were essentially given a monopoly on container trade in and out of the state for the next 50-plus years.
"This didn't happen by accident. It later emerged that NSW Ports had lobbied the government for the sweetest of deals, locking out competition on containers until 2065.
"It drove up the sale price for obvious reasons and it was gladly accepted by a government with dollar signs in its eyes at the time and little regard for the long-term impacts on the state."
Mr Piper's proposed bill would establish that penalties payable by Port of Newcastle for moving containers above a set cap have "no legal effect". The bill is expected to be debated in Parliament next week.
"I'm not going to sit back and watch thousands of jobs disappear from the Hunter region because of a dubious deal which puts a handbrake not just on the Hunter's future but the future of this state," Mr Piper said.
The independent, addressing "valid" concerns about the cost of compensating NSW Ports for scrapping the Newcastle penalty, said the government had options other than a "large one-off compensation payment".
"There are options which don't have to cost taxpayers anything," he said.
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