The former independent MP Rob Oakeshott has announced he will contest the mid-north coast New South Wales seat of Cowper currently held by the Nationals’ Luke Hartsuyker in the federal election this year.
The former member for Lyne – who helped install Julia Gillard into government in 2010 - challenged for the seat of Cowper in the 2016 election after his home town of Port Macquarie moved in an electoral boundary redistribution.
Oakeshott fell short, winning 26% of the primary vote and 45% in two-party preferred terms. His decision to re-contest is bad news for the Morrison government, which is hoping to hold the seat in the face of Hartsuyker’s decision to retire at the election and a rising tide of rural independent candidates urging a protest vote against the Nationals.
“I’ve obviously thought long and hard about this decision and go into it eyes wide open,” Oakeshott said in a video on social media.
“If I don’t stand, nothing happens in our local area because nothing changes politically.”
I am contesting this election with a proven record of delivering on health, education and roads for this region.
— Rob Oakeshott (@RobOakeshott1) January 15, 2019
Join the campaign at https://t.co/AQhcF0E59K
Let's get things done. #Oakey4Cowper pic.twitter.com/VHbl5HkCtv
Oakeshott was silent on the point of whether he expected to win the seat, but said “competition is a wonderful thing in politics” that would help the local area “put pressure on politicians to get the results we deserve”.
“We are no longer forgotten if I do stand as a candidate,” Oakeshott said.
He singled out the Coffs Harbour bypass and a Port Macquarie aquatic centre as examples of projects on a long list that were well overdue and not getting the attention they deserved.
In 2010, Oakeshott, along with Tasmanian independent Andrew Wilkie and NSW independent MP Tony Windsor, were kingmakers for the Gillard minority government.
He retired from politics at the 2013 election because he said he was exhausted from the demands of the hung parliament.
The father of four has been working in recent years as a consultant for the United Nations Development Program and doing advisory work with the Myanmar, Solomon Islands, Cook Islands, Fiji and Vanuatu governments.
Oakeshott’s 2016 bid for Cowper helped him net $71,477 of public funding from the Australian Electoral Commission.
