A local councillor has landed in hot water with the local Mayor after attending a zoom meeting topless.
Australian councillor Allan Robinson, 54, appeared unclothed in a meeting on Tuesday night, only being called out around half-way through the meeting when his colleagues realised what was happening.
Newcastle Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes abruptly stopped speaking after she caught sight of a shirtless Allan Robinson walking around in the video call, reports News.com.au.
As he was not speaking the public could not see what the prompted Mayor Nelmes' sudden silence.
However, he came into view on the broadcast as he replied to Mayor Nelmes.
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Shocked at his appeareance, she said: “Councillor Robinson, can I just call you to order, you cannot be unclothed on a council meeting.
“It's not OK. It brings council into disrepute and I just don’t want to deal with it.
“Please don’t do it.”
Although Mr Robinson did reply, his words could not be heard.
He put on a shirt and the meeting continued as normal, although Newcastle council referred NCA NewsWire to the Office of Local Governments' meetings rules and standards.
The rules include how councillors must be dressed when attending virtual meetings.
They say: “Councillors will be required to be appropriately dressed when attending meetings by audio-visual link".
Mr Robinson is no stranger to hitting headlines, after he was recently dropped by his party after a report found he made abusive comments about his colleagues, and was accused of “relentless sexism and homophobic bullying”.
The report found he made comments about sexuality and appearance of Mayor Nelmes and other Councillors at meetings and in emails.
One email mentioned in the report said Mr Robinson made comments about his female colleagues' weight.
He said: “I've spoken to Grahame about this something needs to be done. If it was in fleet street where fatsos parents live it would have already happened."
In another she wrote: “She's a big chunky woman, she has got legs like Blocker Roach, she is a big unit."
Mr Robinson was also found to have openly referred to his gay colleagues as “poof(s)” and “custard(s).”
The Newcastle independent party announced in July that Mr Robinson would not be included on their ticket at the next election.
Mr Robinson said he intended to run as a “rogue independent” instead.
