Legislation to tear up three mining licences at the centre of major corruption hearings has been passed by the New South Wales Parliament.

Both the Lower House and Upper House unanimously passed the bill to cancel the licences for the Mount Penny, Doyles Creek and Glendon Brook mines.

Under the legislation there will be no compensation for the mine's current owners, NuCoal and Cascade Coal.

The action follows major hearings last year by the state's Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC).

The ICAC recommended cancelling the licences after making corruption findings against several individuals, including former Labor ministers Eddie Obeid and Ian Macdonald.

Both Mr Obeid and Mr Macdonald were expelled from the Labor Party last year, with Opposition Leader John Robertson declaring he would "clean up this show".

But Premier Barry O'Farrell criticised Mr Robertson in Parliament today for not being in the chamber when the bill was voted on.

"The Leader of the Opposition is tough when it comes to speaking about Eddie Obeid and Ian Macdonald in front of TV cameras and microphones," Mr O'Farrell said.

"But [he is] not prepared to come in here and be counted today to stand up and talk today in Opposition to what happened under their watch."

'Extraordinary and unprecedented action'

Cascade Coal issued a statement condemning the passage of the legislation.

"The legislation ... is clearly driven by political expedience and seeks to totally usurp the legal rights of innocent parties and override existing judicial appeals," the statement said.

"The combination of the cancellation of the exploration licences, the denial of compensation rights to innocent parties, the attempt to prevent the state from having any liability for its past conduct and the expropriation of exploration data and other valuable intellectual property represents extraordinary and unprecedented action by the NSW Government.

"This legislative action to confiscate private property rights and to deny access to judicial process is not based on a judicial determination of any kind or even on relevant ICAC findings but simply on Parliament 'being satisfied' ... that the grant of licences were tainted by serious corruption.

"Cascade Coal will carefully review the legislation and will pursue all available actions to protect the legal rights of the company and its shareholders."

Earlier this month NuCoal urged the Government to abandon the legislation.

"The measure would cause undue hardship to NuCoal and its investors, would harm the economic interests of NSW, and would have no impact on any person responsible for wrongdoing," the company said in a statement issued through the ASX.