Buildev sought Baird's ear via MPs: ICAC

As Nathan Tinkler prepares to give evidence to the ICAC, the watchdog has heard allegations his company's bosses wanted to call in favours with two MPs.

The NSW corruption watchdog has heard executives at Buildev wanted to call in favours with two MPs. (AAP)

Executives at Nathan Tinkler's Buildev thought they could call in favours from former NSW ministers Chris Hartcher and Mike Gallacher thanks to money funnelled into a secret Liberal slush fund, the NSW corruption watchdog has heard.

Mr Tinkler is due to front the long-running Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) cash-for-favours probe on Friday.

During a long stint in the witness box on Thursday, Buildev co-founder Darren Williams was quizzed about a text message he sent a colleague in 2011, a month after the coalition took power in NSW.

In it, he stressed that Mr Gallacher and Mr Hartcher needed to get then-NSW Treasurer Mike Baird briefed "asap" about Buildev's plans for a coal-loader on the Newcastle foreshore.

"We may have asked them - Mike and Chris - to brief Mike Baird on the port proposal," Mr Williams said on Thursday.

But he could not recall ever briefing Mr Baird directly.

Counsel assisting, Geoffrey Watson SC, suggested that Buildev bosses believed Mr Gallacher and Mr Hartcher would help get their coal-loader message through because the company had funnelled illicit donations into a fighting fund known as EightByFive.

"You thought that you could contact them and ask for their help, didn't you?" Mr Watson asked.

"And you did that because you knew that Buildev had made payments via the EightByFive scheme which were an advantage to both Mr Gallacher and Mr Hartcher."

Mr Gallacher's barrister Arthur Moses SC slammed those allegations as "baseless".

"You do not make an allegation, especially involving the executive arm of government unless there's a proper foundation for it," he thundered.

Commissioner Megan Latham did not miss a beat.

"Mr Moses, there is no one in the executive arm of government or otherwise who is above the reach of this commission," she said.

Mr Gallacher and Mr Hartcher moved from cabinet onto the NSW parliamentary crossbenches after they were named by the ICAC as persons of interests.

Property developers have been banned from making political donations in NSW since 2009.