City of Newcastle councillor Matthew Byrne resigns from Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes' Labor team after court grants apprehended domestic violence order

Police applied for a Apprehended Domestic Violence Order on behalf of the woman, who the Newcastle Herald has chosen not to name, in August last year.

Cr Byrne, a qualified nurse and former prominent union organiser, applied in May to have the two-year protection order revoked, but the application was refused.

He said on Thursday that there was no physical violence, but admitted to sending too many text messages that would have "benefited from redrafting".

After being contacted by the Newcastle Herald about the matter on Thursday, lord mayor Nuatali Nelmes requested Cr Byrne's resignation from her team.

He resigned from the Labor caucus and will not stand in the upcoming local government elections in December.

In June, Cr Byrne was named as part of Cr Nelmes' team to contest the election, running for his second term.

In a change endorsed by the party's state administrative committee, Cr Byrne was to move up and replace Cr Jason Dunn at the top of Labor's Ward 4 ticket, ahead of Dehanna Richardson and Ann Crump.

But in a joint statement on Thursday, the Labor councillors said Cr Byrne was no longer part of their team.

"As a team, we have repeatedly stated that the standard you walk past is the standard you accept," the Labor councillors' statement said.

"While there are no allegations of physical violence, we take all allegations of harassment against women very seriously."

Labor now has six of the 13 councillors, including Cr Nelmes.

The party will be forced re-shuffle its line-up again going into the election in an effort to maintain its powerful voting bloc.

The make-up of the council has created a de facto parliamentary system in the chamber for the past four years, with Labor ruling as a bloc and the Newcastle Independents casting themselves as an opposition party.

Former NBN news anchor and Independent Cr John Church will run against Cr Nelmes for lord mayor.

Labor had hoped to hang on to its majority in the chamber by retaining two representatives in both Ward 3 and Ward 4 as well as its councillors in the other two wards, but Cr Byrne's resignation could make that difficult.

Magistrate Robert Stone granted the apprehended domestic violence order against Cr Byrne in Newcastle Local Court on August 27 last year after an application by Senior Constable Heidi Armitage on behalf of the woman.

Cr Byrne was present in court when the order was made by Magistrate Stone, but did not make any admissions of wrongdoing.

The orders state Cr Byrne must not assault or threaten the woman; stalk, harass or intimidate her, and intentionally or recklessly destroy or damage any property that belongs to or is in the possession of the woman or anyone she has a domestic relationship with.

He is not allowed to contact the woman in any way, unless through a lawyer, or go within 100 metres of where she lives or works.

Cr Byrne said he kept the matter "very private as I wasn't coping with the separation at the time".

He said he was trying to move on with his life.

"I have let my Labor colleagues know that I will resign from caucus and won't stand at the next election," he said.

"My focus at council was always on my local community."

City of Newcastle and Cr Nelmes has a strong association with Newcastle-based anti domestic violence charity Got Your Back Sista.

In 2017, Got Your Back Sista was named as the council's inaugural charity partner, after asking 1300 staff members the community issues they felt most strongly about.

The partnership was the first in the council's Community Impact Program and Got Your Back Sista has been promoted by the council at the Newcastle 500 Supercars events on White Ribbon Day. The charity helps women and children who have fled domestic violence to set-up a safe home.

Shadow minister for prevention of domestic violence and Charlestown MP, Jodie Harrison, said Cr Byrne's resignation was appropriate.

"Over the last several months there has been huge amounts of community discussion about what behaviour is expected of our leaders," she said.

"We cannot accept lesser behaviour from our elected leaders than we expect from our neighbours or the person in the street."

The woman involved declined to comment and asked for her privacy to be respected.

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