HOSTILITIES between Newcastle lord mayor Nuatali Nelmes and Wallsend MP Sonia Hornery have reached bloodsport levels.
Any resolution to the long-running Labor political feud appears even further away, after the two women traded heavy blows this week over the misleading Scott Neylon letter-writing campaign.
A major target of the "derogatory" letters, Ms Hornery claimed Mr Bath "shamefully abused" his $550,000 a year job funded by Newcastle ratepayers and had Mr Neylon, his close friend who has lived in Japan for decades, take the fall.
She also accused Newcastle's seven Labor councillors of defaming her and called for a public apology.
Cr Nelmes side-stepped a series of direct questions from the Newcastle Herald on Wednesday, but told NBN News Ms Hornery was "punching down on council and dirt filing".
"It is a very low blow to use parliamentary privilege to try and influence the outcome of an independent investigation," she said.
In a joint statement to the Herald, the seven Labor councillors described Ms Hornery's use of parliamentary privilege as "inappropriate".
"When Ms Hornery demanded an investigation, Labor councillors acted to ensure an independent investigation was established," they said.
"Independent investigations are conducted at arms length. It is inappropriate to use parliamentary privilege, while the investigation is still underway, to falsely imply a finding has been, or should be, made."
The councillors denied Ms Hornery had been defamed by remarks made at a council meeting in July, where she was accused of leaking electoral roll information to the Newcastle Herald.
"No untruthful statements have been made about Ms Hornery," they said.
Mr Bath echoed the criticism of Ms Hornery on Wednesday, saying the senior politician "well knows" that council's code of conduct prevents him from commenting about the investigation.
"But what I can say is that this week, Sonia Hornery drove all the way to Sydney so that she could use parliamentary privilege to make false and scurrilous accusations against me and others," he said.
"Any reasonable person would ask why Ms Hornery hid behind parliamentary privilege if there was any truth to her words."
The ugly dispute has seen both sides trade a series of accusations including bullying, unfair tactics and making false statements.
Mr Bath repeated claims on Wednesday that Ms Hornery had ignored requests to provide copies of all correspondence she and her staff had with the Newcastle Herald on the letter-writing saga.
"This request included any documents relating to the leaking of my residential address on the electoral roll to the Newcastle Herald," he said.
The Newcastle Herald has previously stated that it did not access the electoral roll from any MP office, via any MPs or their staff members for the purpose of the investigation.
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