INDEPENDENT member for Lake Macquarie Greg Piper said if a container terminal is established at the Port of Newcastle, he sees “thousands” of jobs being created in the area around the port.

In a speech at the annual Shipping Australian New South Wales Christmas Luncheon, held in Sydney on Friday, Mr Piper said companies, manufacturers, agribusiness, clambering to be able to get their product to an export market, or indeed to bring their raw materials in for their business.

“I have been contacted by people right across the state, but particularly I want to recognise the people from the north-west, the farmers, the agri-businesses around there,” he said.

“They’re so pleased that there is at least a glimmer of hope that they will be able to send their product out through a modern, efficient port that they can access predominately by rail.”

Mr Piper introduced a bill into state Parliament, the Port of Newcastle (Extinguishment of Liability) Bill 2022, which opens the door to the possibility of a commercially viable container terminal at the Port of Newcastle.

He said the bill has been through both houses of Parliament and it was ascended to by the Governor the previous Friday (25 November).

“What that does, ladies and gentlemen, is it puts the ball if you like in the hands of the Port of Newcastle. They can now request the Treasurer of New South Wales, currently Matt Kean, to start a process to look at what the cost of the port lease would have been if it had not been so constrained in 2014,” he said.

“My deep hope is that the value that comes back is affordable for the Port of Newcastle to be able to invest in what they want to do – creating a large, modern container port and integrating into the amazing rail infrastructure that is already there servicing that area of Newcastle.”

Mr Piper said he believes the Port of Newcastle is ready to move “quite quickly” with the opportunity the bill offers.

“I certainly hope that’s the case and we can get some kind of result in the new year from this independent expert that the treasurer will be appointing to work out the equivalent price they would have paid at the time,” he said.

“If that comes about, I think we’re going to see much better container logistics in New South Wales. It might not be in my political lifetime, but I hope it’s going to be in my lifetime that we see a transformation, not just of Newcastle and the Hunter, but of the greater north-west New South Wales.”