A Newcastle councillor has sought clarification on whether new revelations about a letter writer linked to the City of Newcastle CEO will form part of an independent investigation.
Independent councillor John Church asked the question after the Newcastle Herald revealed that pro-clubs comments posted on former NSW premier Bob Carr's blog Thoughtlines in 2011, under the names Scott Neylon and Austin Yule, came from inside ClubsNSW, which was the employer of the current City of Newcastle CEO Jeremy Bath at the time.
The matching IP address on both posts was assigned to ClubsNSW, and can be traced to the Sydney headquarters of the powerful clubs' lobby group.
Newcastle lord mayor Nuatali Nelmes said on July 27 she had written to the council's director of corporate services and public officer to initiate an independent investigation following revelations in the Newcastle Herald about a letter writing campaign by Scott Neylon, who is good friends with Mr Bath.
This came after Minister for Local Government Ron Hoenig said he would ask the City of Newcastle to investigate the matter, and keep himself and the Office of Local Government informed.
Cr Church asked City of Newcastle on July 29 if another article published that day would be included in the inquiry. He was told by council staff the referral to the independent conduct reviewer would make reference to all media articles, who would then determine what approach to take to ensure independence is maintained.
"I'm now asking for further reassurance that the specific new allegations will also be included," Cr Church said.
The revelations come as part of a Herald investigation, which has uncovered a host of letters to the editor and online comments authored under the names Scott Neylon, Austin Yule and Jason Sivo, submitted to the Newcastle Herald, Sydney Morning Herald, Illawarra Mercury, Crikey and Mr Carr's blog over the past 13 years.
Mr Neylon and Mr Bath have been close friends since before university, but Mr Neylon said Mr Bath had never asked him to write letters and the council CEO has denied any involvement in the letter-writing campaign.
The Herald asked City of Newcastle if the latest revelations will be added to the scope of the investigation, if an investigator had been appointed or if an investigation had commenced, however the council said it could not comment.
A spokesperson instead referred back to the council's original statement, which said "as with all investigations, to ensure procedural fairness for all parties, section 12.1 of CN's Procedure for the Administration of The Code of Conduct requires information about code of conduct complaints and the management and investigation of code of conduct complaints to be kept confidential and not publicly disclosed".
"This requirement extends to all CN Councillors and staff and any parties to an investigation and is consistent with the process used for previous code of conduct complaints," the statement said.
