Tony Windsor has called in the lawyers over a "gutter journalism" article accusing him of being a school yard bully almost half a century ago.
But the former independent MP, who's taking on Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce in the seat of New England, is refusing to dignify The Australian newspaper's front page story with a comment.
He reckons it should be viewed in the context of a very close race in the northern NSW seat.
The story details the accounts of four former Farrer Memorial Agricultural High School students, who allege Mr Windsor intimidated younger students as part of the school's culture known as "SACK".
Richard Bull, now 61, accused the former MP of making his life hell.
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Mr Windsor has referred the article to his lawyers.
"I will not be responding to the gutter journalism in The Australian newspaper story today," he said in a statement.
Mr Joyce wants nothing to do with it either.
"To be honest I don't even need the story, I don't want the story, I don't want anything to do with it," he told ABC radio.
It's the second time in two days Mr Windsor has hit back at "gutter" campaigning, having taken issue with a Nationals' advertisement which shows him texting a woman called "New England" and asking her to take him back - a play on his return to politics after three years.
"It was ok for a time I guess, but then he ran off with Julia," the woman says, before noting the relationship ended badly.
Mr Windsor - who was a key player in the Julia Gillard-led minority Labor government in 2010 - reckons the ad implies philandering and says it has deeply upset his wife Lyn.
The Nationals hit back, accusing Mr Windsor of faux outrage.
Any reasonable person could see the ad was tongue-in-cheek, the party said.
The former MP is locked in a tight race with a recent Newspoll showing Mr Joyce edging ahead 51-49 per cent.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said the story indicated The Nationals were worried about the contest in New England.
"It sounds like the National Party is threatened by Tony Windsor," he told reporters near Canberra.
