Who is Austin Yule? Another mysterious contributor linked to City of Newcastle CEO Jeremy Bath's mate and serial letter writer Scott Neylon

Now a third name has been linked to a controversial letter-writing campaign which the Newcastle Herald revealed last month has shadowed City of Newcastle CEO Jeremy Bath's career progression for more than a decade.

Who is Austin Yule is the latest question being raised in the saga, and what is his link to Scott Neylon?

But when it comes to Mr Neylon, who has been mates with Mr Bath for more than 30 years and lived in Japan for at least 25 years, nothing is ever straightforward.

It appears Mr Neylon's horror run of being caught out for misleading in his offerings to Australian publications can now be traced back to more than a decade ago.

In the most recent case to come to light, a person using the name Scott Neylon was called out by former NSW premier Bob Carr on his blog, Thoughtlines.

It was April 2011, and a high-stakes showdown was seriously threatening then prime minister Julia Gillard's government.

For decades the powerful clubs lobby has wielded extraordinary influence over Australian politics and in early 2011 negotiations over poker machine reforms had broken down.

Tasmanian Independent Andrew Wilkie dug his heels in over introducing betting limits on poker machines and threatened to withdraw his vote for the government, which needed the support of the crossbenchers, including the independents, to stay in power.

The pressure cooker climate quickly became known as the "pokie war".

When the clubs industry attacked, it adopted a take-no-prisoners approach to what it saw as a threat to its poker machine business.

Fuelled by huge gambling profits, it waged an aggressive campaign against the measures for the next two years and successfully crushed the government's attempts to reform the industry.

At the centre of the pokie war that targeted NSW Labor MPs in marginal seats, and saw an effigy of Mr Wilkie burnt at a poker machine rally in the heritage town of Braidwood, was ClubsNSW and Clubs Australia media relations manager Jeremy Bath.

After finishing a communications degree at Newcastle University, Mr Bath spent three years in Japan teaching English, along with his close friend Mr Neylon, before taking up a position with the powerful clubs lobby that saw him steer its media and public relations strategies for almost nine years until early 2013.

But it wasn't only Mr Bath fighting the bitter campaign to stave off Ms Gillard's planned gaming industry reforms.

His mate, Mr Neylon, who had been living in Japan at that stage for more than ten years, or someone using his name, also joined the campaign.

Just days after the clubs movement announced it was going ahead with a multi-million dollar advertising campaign against the government, keyboard warrior Scott Neylon entered the debate on Mr Carr's blog.

After the former premier posed some questions about the pokies battle, it didn't take long for him to respond.

"If Get Up and anyone in the federal government wants to push a little harder about the clubs' campaign about poker machines, here are two questions they can research," Mr Carr wrote.

"Of the general managers of the big clubs, who authorised the campaign, what is their remuneration?

"In the big NSW clubs does it in fact approach one million per year? And is any part of it expressed in the form of a bonus related to gaming income?

"That's all. Just those questions."

In what would become a pattern, Scott Neylon then launched a spirited defence of the organisation Mr Bath was working for at the time.

"Shame on you Bob. Haven't you done enough to clubs during your reign in NSW?" he wrote.

"Taxing clubs and giving the money to NSW Health was your promise ... gee that worked out well didn't it!

In a further insult, he added: "Ps stop stealing images from other media and using them on your blog".

A minute later another clubs supporter using the name Austin Yule joined the attack.

"I know the manager of my local bowling club, he makes $65k a year," he wrote.

"About one-twentieth of what you make Bob."

But it seems it isn't that easy to get one past the former premier, who is now the industry professor for business and climate change at the University of Technology Sydney.

Seventeen minutes later, Mr Carr responded.

"Dear 'Austin' and 'Scott'," he wrote.

"When comments purporting to be from two different people arrive within one minute of each other, share an IP address and are both sourced from clubsnsw.com.au, I think I'm entitled some faint suspicion."

Mr Carr confirmed this week he never heard from 'Austin' or 'Scott' again.

The contributors provided different email addresses, but their comments were sent from the same device a minute apart.

Mr Neylon did not respond to the Herald's questions this week about the remarks posted on the blog, if he wrote them or if he knew Austin Yule.

Mr Bath declined to answer a series of questions put by the Herald on Friday about the posts, including if he knew Austin Yule.

Instead, he responded informing the Herald that the NSW Electoral Commission had confirmed in writing that it had commenced an investigation into matters surrounding the Neylon letter-writing controversy.

A few weeks after the blog posts, Sunday Telegraph reporter Claire Harvey, in an article about anonymous cyber bullying, congratulated Mr Carr on his stance.

Ms Harvey called for people who publish commentary online - including the mainstream media - to ditch the right to be anonymous, claiming internet discourse would be much more pleasant if anonymity wasn't guaranteed.

"Former NSW premier Bob Carr showed how to be open when he posted a recent blog supporting federal government moves to force poker-machine gamblers to precommit to gambling limits," she wrote.

"Two commenters with apparently made-up names, Austin Yule and Scott Neylon, then posted aggressive pro-pokie retorts on Carr's blog."

Harvey went on to say she "loved it" when Mr Carr called the pair out.

"So good on you, Bob ... Do it more often. You might not be able to shame the cowards, but you'll probably be able to terrify them with the prospect of being outed. And then things might really change."

For almost a decade Mr Neylon, who sometimes curiously misspells his surname as Neylan, has submitted 18 letters to the Herald, five of which were published.

In them he's provided a host of fake addresses, is prone to twisting the truth and distorting reality to strengthen his arguments and has been excessively solicitous of the career of Mr Bath.

When Mr Bath changes jobs, the subject of Mr Neylon's letters follow. Within the 47-year-old's letters are a host of inconsistencies, some of them plainly wrong, like claiming he's a pensioner who spends his days at Newcastle council pools with his grandkids, when he lives and works in Japan.

Mr Neylon said via email last month that Mr Bath had never asked him to write letters and the council boss has denied any involvement in the letter-writing campaign.

It's unclear why Mr Neylon, an English as a second language teacher, feels the need to attack Mr Bath's critics and religiously support his friend's causes.

Looking from the outside, Mr Bath shouldn't need the support.

A veteran spin doctor, the now council boss was labelled in a 2012 media report as "ruthless in his demolition of federal attempts to reform the use of poker machines in clubs".

The article went further to describe him as being "the force behind the powerful NSW clubs movement" and "arguably one of the most dogged lobbyists and campaigners in the state".

In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph announcing he was leaving clubs in December 2012, Mr Bath cited the federal government backdown of mandatory limits on poker machines as a "high point".

He was also credited with being behind some of the "most damaging campaigns against the State government, particularly during the introduction of the pokies tax".

"As for his detractors, who point to the harm pokies cause the community, Bath has always argued clubs give back as much as they take," the article reads.

At the request of NSW Local Government Minister Ron Hoenig, Newcastle councillors unanimously voted last month to support an independent investigation into links between the Mr Bath and the Scott Neylon letters.

Do you know more? Donna.page@newcastleherald.com.au

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