A former Liberal MP is back treading the halls of NSW parliament, lobbying on behalf of a coal company that the government he once served stripped of exploration licences.
Peter Phelps, who was pushed down the Liberal Party's upper house ticket to an unwinnable spot in the March election, is now a registered lobbyist for Cascade Coal, according to the NSW electoral commission's third-party lobbyist register.
Cascade has for years been pursuing compensation for two mining licences taken from them by the NSW government following a 2012 Independent Commission Against Corruption investigation into the dealings of former NSW Labor minister Eddie Obeid.
As an MP, Mr Phelps initially supported his government's move to strip mining licences from Cascade Coal following the ICAC investigation.
He subsequently changed his tune and criticised the move.
"What we have here appears to me to be gross maladministration by ICAC," Mr Phelps told parliament in 2017.
"Even more importantly, I believe we may have been misled by the then premier into introducing and passing three bills that have expropriated a property right completely unjustifiably."
Mr Phelps said his foray into lobbying was not about money.
"It will be my one and only lobbying gig," Mr Phelps told AAP.
"It is the final thing that I need to cross off my 'to do' list from my time in parliament."
Christian Democrat MP Fred Nile on Wednesday tabled a bill that would amend the state's Mining Act to remove provisions that block compensation being paid by the government for the cancellation of mining licences as a result of ICAC investigations.
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