The NSW Treasurer, Eric Roozendaal, cancelled a tilt for the premiership yesterday after his job was threatened by the Premier's chief of staff, Graeme Wedderburn, Labor sources say.
The Premier, Nathan Rees, denied in Parliament that Mr Wedderburn had threatened to have Mr Roozendaal sacked.
But a source from the Rees camp said yesterday that the Premier would have sworn in a new treasurer by the end of business yesterday had Mr Roozendaal not pulled out of a plan to take him on for the top job.
Noreen Hay rejects talk of seat swapMr Wedderburn had a conversation with Mr Roozendaal's chief of staff, Walt Secord, on Monday night during which it is understood threats were made.
Mr Wedderburn made the call after he learnt that the Herald was running a story that Mr Roozendaal wanted to swap his upper house seat for the Wollongong seat held by Noreen Hay so he could stand for premier.
According to one version a source related to the Herald, Mr Wedderburn told Mr Secord that he would do to Mr Roozendaal ''what we did to Della'' [former Health Minister John Della Bosca] if he did not put out a statement saying he was behind the Premier. Mr Wedderburn denied using those words.
Mr Roozendaal's office then put out a statement at 12.19am yesterday saying: ''NSW Treasurer and Minister for State Development Eric Roozendaal today rejected media reports about leadership speculation.''
The Herald understands Mr Roozendaal rang Labor's general secretary, Matt Thistlethwaite, on Monday morning with the Wollongong proposal but was rebuffed.
There were more meetings yesterday morning between plotters to establish whether a leadership challenge could be mounted, but just after 9am Mr Roozendaal rang Mr Rees to pledge his support. After the 11am caucus meeting, Mr Rees came out saying his leadership was as ''solid as a rock''.
Four junior backbenchers - Andrew McDonald, David Harris, Alan Ashton and Karyn Paluzzano - gave passionate speeches to the caucus asking those making waves for a leadership change to get behind Mr Rees.
One disgruntled MP complained yesterday: ''Some of the MPs were unhappy about the junior MPs giving us a lecture this morning.''
Those in the Rees camp were boasting yesterday that they had headed off a seventh candidate for Mr Rees's job, and that the Right faction could not get its act together to mount a challenge.
Right powerbrokers are keen to replace Mr Rees but cannot come to a consensus on a candidate. Frank Sartor is being blocked by the powerbrokers Eddie Obeid and Joe Tripodi.
Mr Thistlethwaite is understood to have told sources on the Right that he is backing Mr Sartor to keep them onside but is still understood to be with the Rees camp.
One Labor source said of the latest round of leadership speculation: ''It's just last-week [of Parliament] nerves. We haven't turned things around. Some of them might think this is our last chance for a change [before the 2011 election].''
Last night the Premier's office asked Mr Roozendaal's office to put out a statement. A spokesman for Mr Roozendaal said: ''Any suggestion that any threat was made is incorrect.''
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