And Cr Christian said those investigations had cost ratepayers around $10,000 to find he had done "nothing wrong".

While council does not routinely make public the details of complaints made against councillors, the Western Advocate understands the investigations of Cr Christian's page both followed code of conduct submissions against him.

The Advocate understands neither code of conduct submission resulted in a sanction against Cr Christian.

ALSO MAKING NEWS:

"I have no problem with letting this chamber know that I have been investigated twice, my social media page has been investigated twice," he said.

"People in this community wasted around $10,000 of this council's money, ratepayer money, putting complaints in against me and how I conduct myself on Facebook.

"Well, guess what came back, Mr Mayor: Two separate investigations, they did not find a single issue.

"... There is nothing wrong with how I conduct myself other than the fact I am more passionate and more active than some people in this room."

The fiery debate came as councillors considered a draft social media policy to cover their activity on platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.

Such policies are standard for many organisations, including a council policy governing the online behaviour of council staff, but there was none in place for councillors.

Cr Christian had earlier moved for all instances of the word "offensive" to be deleted from the policy, arguing that what might be considered fine by one person might be considered offensive by another.

"Freedom of speech is .. probably the most precious thing we have in this nation ... and over the last 10 or 15 years we've had this cancel culture where 'you can't say this' and 'I'm offended'," he said.

"Well, why should I care if you're offended? That's your problem. Walking around on eggshells as an elected official? Sorry, that doesn't fly with me."

Earlier, Cr Monica Morse had argued strongly that the word "offensive" should be retained as it appeared in other council documents, including the code of conduct for councillors, and she believed the community expected councillors to meet a high standard of behaviour.

"I think we would be wise to go along with the norm which other councils have adopted ... to leave the word offensive in," she said.

"... I really believe that if anybody stands for council they are committing to a standard of respect to each other as councillors.

"We might debate things in council ... but we must always consider the respect of councillors.

"Also, we are committed to supporting Bathurst Regional Council. If you don't want to support the council then you shouldn't be a councillor."

Cr John Fry said the prospect of iVoting at September's local government elections meant there was a need for council to adopt a social media policy sooner rather than later.

In the end, Cr Christian's motion to remove the word "offensive" was carried by a vote of 5-3 but councillors Morse, Jess Jennings and Jacqui Rudge lodged a rescission motion on Thursday that will see the matter return to the chamber.

See for yourself: Wednesday night's Bathurst Regional Council meeting has been live streamed on YouTube. The social media policy debate starts around the 10-minute mark.