The political future of Kiama MP Matt Brown was in doubt last night after he was dumped as Police Minister for behaviour "not befitting a minister" at a post-budget party in June this year.
Mr Brown issued a public apology for his behaviour in Kiama yesterday morning, but his contrition didn't wash with Premier Nathan Rees, who declared he did not want him back in the ministry any time in the future.
The disgraced MP did not give any details of what actually happened during the party in his parliamentary office and refused to answers questions about whether he would return to the back benches or resign from politics altogether.
In a day of high drama, Keira MP David Campbell, the newly promoted Transport Minister, was re-appointed Minister for the Illawarra - a role he had held for five years until Mr Brown's appointment to the job on Monday.
Tony Kelly, who was already the Minister for Industrial Relations, Emergency Services and Lands, has been handed Mr Brown's police portfolio.
Mr Brown was dumped after allegations emerged that he had stripped to his underpants at the post-budget party and danced on a couch in his office.
He has admitted to behaviour not befitting a minister but strongly denied other allegations that he simulated a sex act on Wollongong MP Noreen Hay.
"I'm a human being and I have made a mistake and I am going to cop the consequences of that mistake," Mr Brown said.
"If I could turn back the clock I would," he added.
However, he described as scurrilous the allegations of sexual impropriety with Ms Hay.
"I want to state categorically they are lies, they are not true, they did not happen.
"Why are people suggesting it? I don't know, but the allegations are appalling and offensive and I reject them," Mr Brown said.
Ms Hay confirmed she had attended the party but also strongly denied the sexual allegations.
Premier Rees revealed he had forced Mr Brown to resign on Wednesday night after deciding he had initially lied about his behaviour at a party in his parliamentary offices three months ago.
Mr Rees and his staff spent Wednesday night calling 20 to 30 Labor MPs to investigate allegations that the former housing minister stripped down to "very brief" underpants and danced on a leather couch in his office.
Yesterday, Mr Rees confirmed Mr Brown was in his underwear at the party, and said he would still have been sacked as minister if he'd been honest from the start.
Mr Brown claimed that he had not given Mr Rees the "specifics" of what happened because he was "too embarrassed".
Meanwhile, journalist Imre Salusinszky, who broke the story of Mr Brown's underpants dance, stands by his article, but said dumped planning minister Frank Sartor was not the source.
Salusinszky says his story was corroborated by a number of witnesses and not once denied by Mr Brown's office or Premier Nathan Rees.
While he was only made aware of the story on Wednesday, he said rumours had long been going around Parliament.
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