The special treatment that state Liberals and Labor were giving James Packer's hotel and VIP casino would deliver NSW back to the dark days of the ALP's part 3A planning laws, the Australian Shareholders' Association has warned.

''What about due process?'' the association's chief executive officer, Vas Kolesnikoff', asked yesterday.

He said the Liberal government came into power with a commitment to do away with the laws, under which special projects of state importance went directly the planning minister, who "knew best".

It would be ''Part 3A by another name'' to give Mr Packer's Crown a casino licence and the nod to build a $1 billion hotel at Barangaroo without first going to public tender.

The chairman of Crown's rival Echo Entertainment, John O'Neill, asked why there would not be a competitive tender for the casino and even for the hotel.

Echo did not believe Mr Packer would be allowed into the NSW market until its exclusive licence to run NSW's only casino, the Star, expired in November 2019.

''It's interesting to see what's occurring,'' Mr O'Neill said. ''But it doesn't change the fact that we are the only operators with a licence for the next six or seven years. A lot of things can change in a corporate and a political sense in that time.'' But he added: ''It would be foolish to think Echo would be sitting idly by.''

Echo's share price fell 11¢, or 2.8 per cent, to $3.79 yesterday amid headlines about bipartisan support for Crown's plans. When Mr O'Neill addresses shareholders at Echo's annual general meeting on the Gold Coast today, he is likely to face questions about the threat of Crown poaching its high rollers. Echo boasts that its share of the VIP market in Australia and New Zealand grew 28 per cent - albeit ''off a low base'' - in 2011-12.

The Sydney Business Chamber welcomed the bipartisan support for the Packer plan and its promise of attracting more wealthy visitors to Sydney. But the anti-gambling campaigner, the Reverend Tim Costello, said it showed the major parties ''dancing to the tune of gambling interests''.

''They literally fall into their arms every time,'' he said. The claim the casino would not have poker machines and would only fleece foreign ''whales'' was a furphy, Mr Costello said. ''That's exactly how Adelaide got its casino license and within two years it had pokies.''

The Sydney lord mayor, Clover Moore, was opposed to the deal, and the independent candidate she was backing to replace her as the MP for Sydney, Alex Greenwich, said: ''I don't want Sydney to become a hub for problem gambling and I'm not convinced we need another casino located so close to the Star.''

Anger Over Bipartisan Dance To The Tune Of Packer's Casino Interests