The Labor-dominated Economics References Committee has invited Mr Baird to defend his 99-year lease of half the electricity transmission assets just as polling showed public support for the sell-off was waning.

NSW Opposition Leader Luke Foley will seek to make privatisation one of the central issues of the March election after the backlash in Queensland at Campbell Newman's privatisation plans helped sink his government in a historic landslide.

But Mr Baird has refused the committee's invitation, labelling the inquiry, to be held in Sydney on Wednesday, a "stunt" driven by committee chairman Sam Dastyari, the former NSW Labor general secretary.

"The Premier will not be participating in a Labor Party stunt," said a spokesman.

"We have a $60 billion infrastructure program underway, which will be boosted by a further $20 billion if the government receives a mandate for Rebuilding NSW.

"Labor's legacy for NSW was a $30 billion infrastructure backlog, much of it created while Sam Dastyari was party boss.

"If we want Senator Dastyari's advice on how to fund infrastructure, we will ask for it – but he shouldn't sit by the phone."

Senator Dastyari hit back, asking, "How busy can the premier be when he is asking for billions of dollars?" as part of Treasurer Joe Hockey's asset recycling scheme incentives.

"If Mike Baird wants to treat the people of NSW with contempt, refuse to show up to a senate inquiry and expects the Senate to hand over billions so he can flog off assets, he has rocks in his head," he said.

"The [Asset Recycling] bill hasn't passed the Senate. The case hasn't been made for this money and Mike Baird has not only already spent, he is laughing in the face of NSW families."

A Fairfax/Ipsos poll released this week found fewer than one in four voters - or 23 per cent - support the partial privatisation of the electricity "poles and wires".

That represents a 6 per cent drop in support since the same question was posed in an identical survey in November shortly before Mr Baird outlined the infrastructure that would be funded by his plan.

While the business lobby has given its full endorsement to the privatisation, some independent bodies such as the consumer watchdog have flagged concerns.

In a submission to the inquiry, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission raised its concern that encouraging state and territory government to sell off assets at the highest possible price might not lead to the best long-term outcome for consumers.

"The ACCC is concerned that ... continuing benefits of privatisation can be put at risk when governments aim to maximise sale proceeds by taking action that limits competition or minimises or avoids appropriate regulation," the submission reads.

"These concerns are increased where, in the case of the Asset Recycling Initiative, the Commonwealth government proposes to provide incentive payments of 15 per cent of the sale proceeds."

ACCC chairman Rod Sims told the Australian Financial Review this week: "Privatisations always resolve to get money to do other things, therefore success is getting as much money as we can. But that tempts governments to put in anti-competitive arrangements or inadequate regulation.

"[Consumers] should like privatisation but the way we're doing it means they don't."

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