He has asked the council what protection exists for councillors who perceive they are being harassed or intimidated by other councillors or staff.

The question comes several months after Cr McGoldrick made public a voice message Liverpool Mayor Wendy Waller allegedly left on his answering machine in which she apparently said she would ``have his balls on a plate'' if he went to the media over an issue the council was about to vote on.

``At first I thought I made the wrong decision going to the media with it and I was a bit embarrassed about the whole thing,'' Cr McGoldrick said.

``But the more I thought about it the angrier I got.''

Both the mayor and the councillor are members of the Labor Party.

``Just imagine if I said something like that to a woman?'' Cr McGoldrick said. ``I would've been tossed out of the council on my ear.''

Cr McGoldrick claimed Ms Waller often spoke negatively of people who didn't agree with her or who are not members of the Labor Party.

``I'm going to wait and see what response I get to this question and then I may still consider lodging an official complaint about the incident it's never too late,'' he said.

Cr Waller said the issue was being investigated by an impartial representative of general manager Phil Tolhurst and it was going through the appropriate processes.

``I've considered Jim a friend for 20 years so I was very disappointed when he took a private conversation we had public,'' Cr Waller said. ``We do not have an atmosphere of bullying in the council. We generally try to work together and communicate in a civil way. All of the councillors have their own political agendas so we can't always get along perfectly all the time.''