The mayor, however, has not yet had his say on the specifics of the allegations - which involved a letter received by Cr Rudge - and had not responded to attempts by the Western Advocate to reach him on Thursday night.

Thursday night's episode of the ABC's 7.30 current affairs program - in which Cr Rudge made her shocking claim - said the program understood that Cr Bourke had said he didn't know what was in the letter in question before it was posted.

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Cr Rudge's allegations on Thursday night follow her going public, in a story in the Western Advocate in March last year, about the blackmail letter she received.

Cr Rudge told the 7.30 program that Bathurst resident Chris Hosa contacted her via Facebook five months after she went public about the letter, which threatened to expose her mental health issues if she did not resign as a councillor within seven days.

Mr Hosa was working at the Bathurst Community Op Shop when Cr Rudge received the letter in March, 2020. Cr Bourke is heavily involved in the running of the op shop.

A recorded phone conversation between Cr Rudge and Mr Hosa was aired by 7.30, in which Mr Hosa claimed it was Cr Bourke who had asked him to write the name and address on the envelope.

"He gave me an envelope and asked me to write Jacqui's name on it. He put the letter in the envelope and got me to deliver it to the mail, then we just went, picked one of his mates up and went to the pub for a few beers," Mr Hosa told 7.30.

"Me, being dumb, didn't ask any more questions. He just said it was something he had to do."

Mr Hosa said he did not know of the contents of the letter at the time.

According to 7.30, a NSW Police investigation into the blackmail letter matter is ongoing. The program said Cr Bourke "provided a statement to police confirming Hosa's account".

The program said that it understood Cr Bourke had "said that another person gave him the letter and he didn't read it or know what was in it before he arranged for Hosa to post it".

Cr Bourke did not appear on the program, telling 7.30 in an email that he could not comment because of the police investigation.

Cr Rudge said there had been dirty politics at Bathurst council and "that secret needs to be exposed".

She reported that her position with council became strained in the lead up to the 2019 mayoral election, the one that saw Cr Bourke rise to the city's top job.

"I was particularly targeted because I didn't vote for the mayor and I was targeted because I was his number two on his ticket, and it was felt he had dragged me on to council and got me over the line and then I'd stabbed him in the back by not voting for him as mayor," Cr Rudge told the program.

The Western Advocate attempted to contact both Cr Rudge and Cr Bourke for comment.

They had not responded by time of publishing.

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