In a letter sent to MPs on Monday, Ms Hay criticised the Opposition Leader’s requests for her to resign from the position for a second time, after the Australian Federal Police last week laid charges in relation to allegations of electoral fraud on one of her Wollongong staffers.

However, she also called on the caucus to “support our leader” and said she would not contest the ballot for Whip “in the interests of party unity”.

“I strongly believe that Luke has made a mistake in asking me to resign,” she wrote.

“I am concerned about the message this sends for the ALP, myself and my staffer. I do not understand the basis for this request.”

Nevertheless, she told the Mercury she was “confident my colleagues will support him”.

“I fully expect to not be Whip,” she said.

Ms Hay said her decision not to resign from the position, as asked, and instead face a party vote was to ensure “procedural fairness” for herself and her staffer.

“If I resigned and the everyday man and woman out there read the paper, they would say, ‘Well, no one resigns if they haven’t done something”. And that’s quite right, who resigns if they haven’t done anything,” she said.

“I’ve done nothing wrong, there are no allegations, there are no charges against me, so I’m not quite sure what the basis to sack me is.

“And I don’t think you raise the integrity of the Labor Party by throwing the presumption on innocence out the window.”

“My decision not to resign is not anti-him, it’s pro-me.”

Asked about Mr Foley’s ultimatum, that he would resign the leadership if Ms Hay was not ousted from her position, Ms Hay said the Labor leader “must have had a funny turn”.

“I don’t think he meant that, I mean, that’s silly. I’m not challenging him or asking any colleagues to challenge him,” she said.

“I support the processes of the Labor Party. But the issue for me, is that I’ve been asked to resign, and I’ve said no because I’m not prepared to take an action that would make me look guilty of something.

“If the AFP thought I had done something I shouldn’t have done, they would have laid a charge on me.”

The message was sent loud and clear.

Labor leader Luke Foley could not have been any more straight forward on the matter.

Either embattled Wollongong MP Noreen Hay would go as Opposition Whip or he would stand down as Opposition leader.

That was the whole sum of the equation.

That was the choice facing the NSW Labor caucus on Thursday afternoon.

Mr Foley had called for Ms Hay to stand down as Opposition Whip.

The call came after one of Ms Hay’s staffers was charged as a result of an Australian Federal Police investigation into alleged electoral fraud.

Ms Hay has not been charged and was reinstated as party whip after she was cleared in the investigation just close to two weeks ago.

However, the AFP’s move to charge her staffer triggered the Opposition Leader’s call for Ms Hay to hand in her role.

Ms Hay stood firm and a showdown of the highest order appeared unavoidable on Thursday.

That is until Ms Hay confirmed to the Illawarra Mercury on Monday afternoon she would not pose any threat to Mr Foley’s leadership.

Instead, Ms Hay urged her colleagues to support Mr Foley and declared she would not contest any vote for the position of Opposition Whip.

There was never any doubt the party would support Mr Foley.

It appears a shrewd manoeuvre from a political animal who has had more lives than most cats.

- Editorial