Queensland Police Union president Ian Leavers has launched a scathing attack on Tim Nicholls, labelling the Treasurer the "Kevin Rudd of the LNP" and accusing him of "undermining" Premier Campbell Newman and attempting to "sabotage" the government in his quest to be leader.
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Speaking in defence of vice-president Shayne Maxwell's claims that LNP backbenchers had approached the union for support if they were to run in the next election as independents, Mr Leavers said the MPs were "worried about the direction Tim Nicholls is taking the LNP".
Fairfax Media revealed on Wednesday that at least six LNP MPs - from north Queensland, Brisbane and the outer-metro regions - had approached the union.
Mr Leavers escalated the story at a press conference, unleashing an attack on Mr Nicholls.
The Police Union angst stems from having been told the Premier supported additional funding for the Queensland Police Service to deal with the Safe Night Precincts, which form part of the government's alcohol-fuelled violence reforms, which Mr Nicholls nixed at the Cabinet Budget Review Committee.
That information is meant to be kept confidential, leading to accusations from all sides of political machinations.
Mr Leavers said he was just defending police employees.
"These MPs believe that Tim Nicholls is undermining Campbell Newman's leadership but they are too scared to speak up," he said.
"Because of the leave embargo at the moment because of G20, there are plenty of police in the Brisbane CBD and the Valley to look after drunks, but come December 1 there will be barely any to ensure a safe night out.
"We have heard Tim Nicholls talk about $44 million going towards the Safe Night Out Strategy, yet he doesn't talk about the proposals for funding that the government asked the police to put forward, that the Premier and the Police Minister supported at the Cabinet Budget Review Committee and that Tim Nicholls knocked back.
"Only the public will suffer. We as police have heard time and time again that the Premier and ministers such as the Police Minister support funding proposals at the Cabinet Budget Committee and the Treasurer over-rules them, so understandably, LNP MPs and the public are wondering what Tim Nicholls is up to.
"It appears this is a deliberate attempt to sabotage the government by Tim Nicholls because he wants to be Premier.
"Tim Nicholls is the Kevin Rudd of the LNP who seems to be undermining the Premier and police at every turn.
"The issues that Tim Nicholls sees in his Clayfield electorate are, with the greatest respect to the people of Clayfield, not representative of a lot of the issues that police see firsthand in the rest of Queensland."
But Mr Newman defended his "friend", Mr Nicholls.
"The bottom line is this treasurer, this Cabinet, this government have backed the Queensland Police Service in an unprecedented way," Mr Newman said, before moving to place his hand on Mr Nicholl's shoulder.
"The person who is right behind them 100 per cent is my friend the Treasurer of Queensland."
Addressing an Opposition question in parliament, which did not include the "Kevin Rudd of the LNP" reference, Mr Nicholls said he was a huge supporter of the QPS.
"Let me reflect on my complete and ongoing admiration for the hard work and the dedication of the men and women of the Queensland Police Service," Mr Nicholls said.
"Only three weeks ago in response to a request from the Police Commissioner this government approved an extra $1.5 million in order to provide safety and security around cultural and religious buildings because of the recent upturn in ISIS.
"That funding request was approved without a shadow of a doubt. The people who are supporting the QPS are the LNP government."
