The exchange is the latest episode in a political battle that began when Cr Clausen successfully moved to have a house the McCloy family demolished on Parkway Avenue, Bar Beach, maintained on the city's heritage register.

Cr Clausen told the Newcastle Herald in July he had referred the matter to the Independent Commission Against Corruption.

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Mr McCloy said this week that Cr Clausen only raised the 2017 demolition earlier this year at a time when "rumours were circulating" that he was "considering a return to politics".

Mr McCloy was lord mayor from 2012 to 2014 when he resigned at the height of ICAC inquiry Operation Spicer.

The resultant ICAC report in 2016 found Mr McCloy to be one of more than a dozen people who "acted with the intention" of evading election donation laws.

He was not charged but his legal battle to overturn a NSW law banning donations from property developers in state politics was lost in the High Court in 2015.

Mr McCloy said this week that he had "a thick enough skin" to cope with attacks on his reputation, but singling out the Bar Beach property owned by his wife, Tracey, showed how "antagonistic" Cr Clausen had been towards him.

Since the Herald's July report, Cr Clausen has declined to answer questions about the referral to ICAC, saying he "respect(s) the process, including the requirement of confidentiality".

Asked whether he had raised the demolition to discredit Mr McCloy in some way, Cr Clausen said that "at no point did I reference him in council, or in the media".

(Cr Clausen referred to the property by its address in council, and it was only when Independent councillor Kath Elliott asked at the meeting who owned the property that the connection to Mr McCloy became obvious.)

Cr Clausen said he was "fully aware of the facts of this matter - as they pertained to its approval by council staff under delegated authority - before raising it in council.

Cr Clausen said the timing of Mr McCloy's criticism of him was "curious, made on the eve of an election, and appears to be designed to promote the agendas of John Church, Kath Elliott and Allan Robinson".

He pointed to a Labor Bill to "disqualify property developers and real estate agents" from sitting on councils, which passed the Legislative Council in June with the Liberal and National parties voting against it.

"If it passed the Legislative Assembly, which based on the discussion from the crossbench seems possible and indeed probable, then Cr Church will be required to resign from council within six months of its passage," Cr Clausen said.

"This would trigger a by-election."

Cr Church said he would not respond to "a hypothetical from a desperate opponent".

WAR OF WORDS:

Mr McCloy said Cr Clausen was using the council media department to promote his personal agenda, which included his attacks on property developers.

Cr Clausen said he had noted at the time that it was Coalition minister Matt Kean who said having developers and estate agents on councils was like "putting Dracula in charge of the blood bank".

'I'm proud of Newcastle Labor's achievements," Cr Clausen said.

"We work as a team. That's why we have been successful, and the city is better for it."

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