The Project television program arrived at City Hall on Tuesday night to film Allan Robinson, but the controversial councillor did not show up.
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The Ten Network panel show sent a five-man production team, including presenter Hamish Macdonald, to Newcastle to shoot footage of Cr Robinson in a council meeting and interview him.
The Newcastle Herald understands the interview did not go ahead.
Cr Robinson has attracted attention in recent weeks for allegedly homophobic and sexist comments in and out of the chamber.
He referred to a female councillor as looking like "Jessie the elephant" during a debate and has referred to homosexuals as "p--fs" during media interviews.
Cr Robinson and the three other Newcastle Independents issued a statement four weeks ago saying they "do not endorse hate speech by anyone at anytime" but did not refer directly to Cr Robinson's comments.
All four Independents missed Tuesday's meeting.
John Church said he had asked for leave of absence on Tuesday due to illness, and Kath Elliott said she was caring for a relative.
The Newcastle Herald tried to contact Andrea Rufo and Cr Robinson.
Crs Elliott and Church had tabled a notice of motion before Tuesday night about Newcastle's "forgotten diva", Florence Austral, but were not in the chamber to present it.
Other issues of keen interest to the Independents, including a new funding model for the city's business improvement associations and the drawing of new ward boundaries, were also up for debate.
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Greens representative John Mackenzie was away on holiday, leaving Liberal Brad Luke as the only non-Labor councillor at the meeting.
The seven Labor councillors presented a motion "condemning in the strongest possible terms language and behaviour that is sexist and homophobic, including recent comments attributed to Councillor Allan Robinson".
Cr Luke said he had received "advice" that the motion might be defamatory and posed a financial risk to the council.
He refused to participate in the debate and exited the chamber, leaving the council without a quorum and the TV crew without anything to shoot, but he returned after Labor agreed to drop the potentially offending part of the motion.
The Labor majority voted at the end of the debate to lay the matter on the table until the Independents were present to respond to the criticism of Cr Robinson.
Deputy lord mayor Declan Clausen moved successfully at the start of the meeting that Crs Mackenzie and Rufo, "who provided advanced advice of their absence from this evening's meeting", be granted leave of absence.