oakeshott asked labor for state cabinet seat

This guy is a fraud.


* EXCLUSIVE: Imre Salusinszky, NSW political reporter
* From: The Australian
* September 10, 2010 12:00AM

ROB Oakeshott has previously sought positions in Labor cabinets, casting doubt on whether the independent MP was fully impartial as he considered the claims of Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott to form minority government.

The Australian has learned that Mr Oakeshott, then a state MP, approached former NSW premier Morris Iemma in 2007 and asked to join his ministry. He was emboldened by persistent rumours of a cabinet reshuffle and the fact that Mr Iemma had recently appointed another independent, Northern Tablelands MP Richard Torbay, as Speaker.

According to a senior Labor source, Mr Oakeshott told Mr Iemma he might resign from parliament if his request were not met, warning that his seat of Port Macquarie would probably revert to the Nationals.

In fact, Mr Oakeshott did leave state parliament a year later, winning the federal seat of Lyne at a by-election and vacating his state seat for another independent, Peter Besseling.

A spokesman for Mr Oakeshott said last night he had "no recollection whatsoever of being in a conversation with Morris Iemma about a ministerial position in 2007".

Mr Iemma declined to comment in detail but confirmed that the conversations took place.

Mr Oakeshott is due to announce today whether he will accept a ministerial position overseeing regional Australia in the Gillard government.

The conversations between Mr Iemma and Mr Oakeshott took place at Mr Oakeshott's behest, seven months after the March 2007 state election. Mr Iemma, who had a workable majority of five seats, at that time saw no advantage in appointing an independent to cabinet and calculated that it would arouse anger on his back bench.

He told Mr Oakeshott if he were to consider such a move it would be in the event of a hung parliament following the 2011 state election.

The Labor source, who was privy to the discussions, said Mr Oakeshott told Mr Iemma: "If there is a reshuffle, I have a suggestion, and the suggestion is put me in."

"He said, 'It's in your interests . . . to keep me in the parliament, because Port Macquarie's a safe conservative seat, and if it's not me, it reverts to the Nats'.

"He said he was growing increasingly bored. His mind was not being exercised and he was not being intellectually engaged.

"There was a follow-up meeting when he told Morris, 'I'm going brain-dead here'."

Nationals senator Barnaby Joyce said last night it had been Mr Oakeshott's right to seek elevation to a Labor cabinet in 2007, but that it showed it was "mischievous" of the MP to suggest his decision last week came down to the toss of a coin.

"Once I saw that (Labor strategist) Bruce Hawker was the friend, guide and philosopher for Mr Oakeshott and Mr Windsor, I thought our chances were buckley's and none of getting them to support the Coalition," Senator Joyce said. "Were they genuinely interested in the Coalition's election costings? Did they sit back at night and peruse them? Or was it merely a tactic?"