[4][6][7] He also competed for preselection against George Williams, who had been "anointed by the ALP executive", had the "blessing of former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam" and whose chances had been "talked up" by ABC news reports.

[13] On 4 February 2013, Clare replaced Mark Dreyfus as Cabinet Secretary, at the same time relinquishing the defence material portfolio.

However, on 1 July, following a leadership spill that saw Kevin Rudd return as prime minister, he was replaced as Cabinet Secretary by Alan Griffin.

[3] Clare was a senior member of the shadow cabinet after Labor's defeat in 2013, under opposition leaders Bill Shorten and Anthony Albanese.

He served as Shadow Minister for Communications (2013–2016), Resources and Northern Australia (2016–2019), Trade and Investment (2016–2019), Regional Services, Territories and Local Government (2019–2022), and Housing and Homelessness (2019–2022).

Clare stated that he believed that West, who is commonly referred to as Ye, should have his visa denied for his praise of Adolf Hitler and his history of anti-semitic comments.

[18][19] In December 2023, Saint Ursula's College, Kingsgrove ended its ban on same-sex partners for LGBT+ students attending the school formal after Clare urged the Catholic school to “show a little bit of common sense”, saying “You should be able to take whoever you want to the Year 12 farewell.” A Change.org student petition against St Ursula's “discriminatory policy” had reached 4,900 signatures.