Premier
- See also: Rees ministry
After the resignation of Morris Iemma on 5 September 2008, later in the day, Rees was nominated for the position of Premier and won the unanimous support of the Labor Party caucus. He was sworn in by the Lieutenant Governor of New South Wales, Supreme Court Chief Justice James Spigelman after only nineteen months as a Member of Parliament. Carmel Tebbutt was elected unanimously as Deputy Leader, and thus Deputy Premier. The following Monday, 8 September, Rees was also sworn in as Minister for the Arts.
A slump in revenues associated with the recent global financial crisis compelled Rees and the State Treasurer Eric Roozendaal to implement a mini-budget which was handed down on 11 November 2008. The mini-budget increased taxes and charges such as land tax, mineral royalties, parking space levies and also announced the privatisation of state assets. A universal scheme providing free travel on public transport for all students going to and from school was curtailed - a decision since reversed - and the previously announced North West Metro and South West rail projects were indefinitely postponed. A series of by-elections to replace former Premier Morris Iemma, Deputy Premier John Watkins and Health Minister Reba Meagher resulted in massive swings against the government and saw John Watkins' former seat of Ryde resoundingly lost to the Liberals.
Soon after returning from his wedding in New York, Rees dismissed rumours of a leadership challenge within the Labor party. After the resignation of John Della Bosca as Minister for Health and the Central Coast, and after a subsequent cabinet reshuffle, Rees appointed himself as Minister for the Central Coast.
On 14 November 2009, Rees was granted extraordinary powers by the New South Wales Labor State Conference to pick his own cabinet (usually the Labor caucus and Head Office chooses the ministry, and the leader only assigns portfolios). The next day Rees sacked Finance Minister (and Labor powerbroker) Joe Tripodi, Primary Industries Minister Ian McDonald, and Parliamentary Secretaries Henry Tsang and Sonia Hornery for blocking key reforms aimed at distancing the government from corruption and improving the provision of services to constituents and for plotting to remove him from the premiership. This was the fourth time since Rees had taken over the premiership that there had been a cabinet reshuffle.
On 3 December 2009, Rees resigned after a spill motion was passed 43 to 25 at a caucus meeting. In the subsequent leadership vote, the Minister for Planning, Kristina Keneally, defeated Rees by 47 votes to 21. Rees lost the crucial backing of the dominant right faction of the Labor Party. Earlier that day, Rees said at a press conference, "I will not hand over New South Wales to Eddie Obeid or Joe Tripodi" and that if someone were to replace him by the end of the day "they will be a puppet of Joe Tripodi and Eddie Obeid". Rees is the first New South Wales Labor Party Premier not to lead the party into an election. On 22 October 2010, Rees was granted by the Governor retention of the title "The Honourable".
The Keneally government was heavily defeated at the 2011 state election. Rees nearly lost his own seat, suffering a massive 14.2 percent swing. By comparison, he'd won election in 2007 with 61 percent of the two-party vote; he was one of several MPs from Labor's traditional stronghold of west Sydney who saw their majorities more than halved. Following the election, new Opposition leader John Robertson appointed Rees as Shadow Minister for Police and Emergency Services and Shadow Minister for the Arts in his new Shadow Cabinet.
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