Tony Windsor insists the row over his comment about Peta Credlin making a "nice cup of tea" is, well, just a storm in a teacup.
The former independent MP and the ex-chief of staff to Tony Abbott are in the spotlight over the colourful and tight campaign for the seat of New England.
Mr Windsor has hit out at an "offensive" Nationals TV ad which he claims alleges infidelity on his part, and has called in the lawyers over a newspaper article alleging he was a schoolyard bully.
Ms Credlin, who was in politics at the same time as Mr Windsor during the time of a Labor minority government, accused him of engaging in dirty politics as an MP.
Mr Windsor should cop the good and the bad during the campaign, she added.
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"He's never been a guy in my time in politics that played a clean game," she said.
Mr Windsor responded to that with a tweet: "Peta Credlin always made a nice cup of tea during hung parliament."
Some took that as a sexist jibe at the former prime ministerial staffer.
But Mr Windsor insists he meant it literally.
"She made a very, very good cup of tea," he told ABC TV on Thursday.
"In the 17 days when we were negotiating the formation of the minority government ... she always made the tea. That really impressed me...
"It was meant as a compliment."
Mr Windsor was full of praise for Ms Credlin - who he described as a professional - and said he'd never dished anything on her when journalists rang for dirt in the past few years.
