Jeff McCloy

Jeffrey Raymond 'Jeff' McCloy is an Australian politician, who was Lord Mayor of Newcastle between 2012 and 2014. He has a degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Newcastle. Before entering politics, he ran his own construction company, which built John Hunter Hospital. In 2008 he won the Hunter Business Chamber 2008 Business Person of the Year, and in 2009 he won the City of Newcastle Medal.^[1]

McCloy campaigned for the removal the rail line through the centre of Newcastle and, despite being nominally an independent, supported Liberal candidates in the Council ward elections.^[2] Polling day in 2012 was marked by controversy when the running mate of an opposing candidate switched sides to support McCloy.^[3]

In 2012, McCloy met the then Opposition Leader (and future Prime Minister of Australia) Tony Abbott to discuss the future of the Newcastle CBD.^[4] In 2013, he held a joint press conference with Abbott and Newcastle victims of the Bali bombings in support of Abbott's proposed legislation to assist victims of terrorism overseas.^[5]

McCloy opposed rainbow crossings in support of Gay rights, referring to them as "nonsense", and used council resources to remove them, despite claims they did not breach any laws. After Lake Macquarie and Cessnock councils expressed support for the rainbow crossings, McCloy attacked Cessnock as a "bloody mess" and threatened to arrange for Lake Macquarie City Council chambers to be "chalked with half a ton of chalk".^[6]

McCloy appeared at a hearing of the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) 14 August 2014 relating to Operation Spicer, an investigation into allegations of corrupt conduct in relation to the 2011 elections in New South Wales.^[7][8] He was recalled to give further evidence on Friday 12 September 2014.

Tim Owen, the Liberal member for Newcastle, and Andrew Cornwell, the Liberal member for Charlestown, each admitted accepting amounts of $10,000 from McCloy. As a result, both Owen and Cornwell resigned from parliament on 12 August 2014.

On 17 August 2014, McCloy resigned as Lord Mayor of Newcastle, effective immediately. He said his resignation was due to ongoing controversy over his appearance before ICAC, which he said "may effect [sic] the proper functioning" of Newcastle City Council.^[9]

In 2015, McCloy's attempts to overturn part of a New South Wales Act of Parliament, enacted to prevent developers from making political donations, were rejected by the High Court of Australia.^[10] The case was significant in Australian constitutional law, as it clarified the extent to which the Constitution of Australia provides an implied freedom of political communication, and expanded on the proportionality test developed in Lange v Australian Broadcasting Corporation.^[11][12]

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