The NSW Hunter Valley lord mayor has been forced to call councillor Allan Robinson to order after he appeared "unclothed" during an online meeting on Tuesday night.
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Midway through a meeting of the development applications committee, Newcastle lord mayor Nuatali Nelmes abruptly stopped answering a question after spotting a shirtless Cr Robinson on the Zoom call.
"Cr Robinson, can I just call you to order, you can not be unclothed on a council meeting," she said.
"It's not OK. It brings council into disrepute and I just don't want to deal with it, so please don't do it."
While Cr Robinson responded and could be seen on the public webcast shirtless, his comments could not be heard.
His initial appearance as viewed by the lord mayor and other councillors was not visible to the public.
A clearly frustrated Cr Nelmes quickly moved on to the next agenda item and the meeting continued.
Contacted after the meeting, Cr Robinson defended his actions by saying he wasn't nude and he could only been seen on screen from above the waist.
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He said he had been sitting at home in dirty work clothes from his day job in demolition and removed them so his wife could put them in the wash.
"I got to the meeting late ... I didn't have time to have a shower," he said.
The incident follows a video of Cr Robinson from the August council meeting going somewhat viral online.
The video, which was mainly of Cr Robinson talking about his wife's cooking, attracted more than 90,000 views on Instagram.
The former jockey has been widely slammed this council term for comments he has made about some of his fellow councillors.
He recently parted ways with the Newcastle Independents after details of offensive remarks he made during a code of conduct investigation were made public.
He is running as a standalone independent for ward four in the December council election.