Robert James Murray Oakeshott (born 14 December 1969) is a retired Australian politician. He was the
independent
Independent or Independents may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups
* Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s
* Independ ...
Member of the
House of Representatives for the
Division of Lyne
The Division of Lyne is an Australian electoral division in the state of New South Wales.
Geography
Since 1984, federal electoral division boundaries in Australia have been determined at redistributions by a redistribution committee appointed ...
in New South Wales from 2008, when he won the
2008 Lyne by-election
The 2008 Lyne by-election was held for the Australian House of Representatives seat of Lyne on 6 September 2008. This was triggered by the resignation of National Party MP Mark Vaile. The by-election was held on the same day as the Mayo by-el ...
, until his retirement in 2013. Oakeshott described his views as
economically conservative and
socially progressive
Progressivism holds that it is possible to improve human societies through political action. As a political movement, progressivism seeks to advance the human condition through social reform based on purported advancements in science, techno ...
.
Oakeshott began his political career in state politics. Originally elected as the National Party candidate for the state seat of
Port Macquarie
Port Macquarie is a coastal town in the local government area of Port Macquarie-Hastings. It is located on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales, Australia, about north of Sydney, and south of Brisbane. The town is located on the Tasman Sea co ...
in the
New South Wales Legislative Assembly
The New South Wales Legislative Assembly is the lower of the two houses of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The upper house is the New South Wales Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament Ho ...
in 1996, he left the party to become an
Independent
Independent or Independents may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups
* Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s
* Independ ...
in 2002. Oakeshott retained the seat until 2008, when he resigned to contest the federal seat of Lyne, which he won with a large margin. He retained Lyne at the
2010 election, again with a large margin.
The 2010 election resulted in a
hung parliament, with the diverse
crossbench holding the balance of power. Oakeshott,
Tony Windsor
Antony Harold Curties Windsor, (born 2 September 1950) is a former Australian politician. Windsor was an independent member for the New South Wales Legislative Assembly seat of Tamworth from 1991 to 2001 − supporting the incumbent Greiner L ...
and other crossbenchers agreed to back the incumbent
Gillard Labor government to form
minority government
A minority government, minority cabinet, minority administration, or a minority parliament is a government and Cabinet (government), cabinet formed in a parliamentary system when a political party or Coalition government, coalition of parties do ...
, providing it with
confidence and supply, while retaining the right to vote on
conscience
Conscience is a cognitive process that elicits emotion and rational associations based on an individual's moral philosophy or value system. Conscience stands in contrast to elicited emotion or thought due to associations based on immediate sens ...
in any other matters.
Oakeshott retired at the
2013 election, choosing not to recontest his seat. Oakeshott contested the
Division of Cowper at the
2016 election
The following elections occurred in the year 2016.
Africa
Benin Republic
*2016 Beninese presidential election 6 March 2016
Cape Verde
* 2016 Cape Verdean presidential election 2 October 2016
Chad
* 2016 Chadian presidential election 10 A ...
, challenging National incumbent
Luke Hartsuyker
Luke Hartsuyker (born 26 October 1959) is a former Australian politician who was a member of the House of Representatives from 2001 to 2019, representing the Division of Cowper in New South Wales for the National Party. He served as a governmen ...
. Cowper had absorbed Port Macquarie after the latest
redistribution.
Oakeshott lost the election, but managed to turn the once-safe National seat into a marginal seat.
On 15 January 2019, Oakeshott announced his candidacy for the seat of
Cowper at the
2019 Australian federal election
The 2019 Australian federal election was held on Saturday 18 May 2019 to elect members of the 46th Parliament of Australia. The election had been called following the dissolution of the 45th Parliament as elected at the 2016 double dissolut ...
. The Nationals retained the seat with a small swing towards them.
Early life and career
Oakeshott was born in
Lismore. His father, also named Rob Oakeshott, was a doctor in the area until his death in 2016 and his grandfather Captain John Oakeshott was a prisoner of war and survived the
Sandakan Death Marches.
His maternal grandfather was Sir Angus Murray, a President of the
Australian Medical Association
The Australian Medical Association (AMA) is an Australian public company by guarantee formed as a professional association for Australian doctors and medical students. The association is not run by the Australian Government and does not regul ...
.
Oakeshott attended
Barker College for his secondary schooling, and was a boarder in his later years there. He then studied a Bachelor of Arts at the
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...
.
While there, he was a resident of
St. Andrew's College when the Principal,
Peter Cameron Peter Cameron is the name of:
* Peter Cameron (entomologist) (1847–1912), English entomologist who specialised in Hymenoptera
* Peter Cameron (minister) (born 1945), Scottish-born Church of Scotland minister convicted of heresy by the Presbyteria ...
, was convicted of heresy by the
Presbyterian Church of Australia
The Presbyterian Church of Australia (PCA) is the largest Presbyterian denomination in Australia. (The larger Uniting Church in Australia incorporated about two-thirds of the PCA in 1977.)
History
Beginnings
When captain James Cook lande ...
.
Oakeshott describes Cameron as an influence on his thinking:
Oakeshott graduated with a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Government in 1992.
He then worked as an administrative officer at the Road Transport Forum, for the lobbying company Resolutions, as a staffer for
National Party Leader
Mark Vaile
Mark Anthony James Vaile (born 18 April 1956) is a former deputy prime minister of Australia and former leader of the National Party of Australia. Vaile is currently a non-executive director of a number of public listed corporations.
Early li ...
, and in public relations for the Coalition in Canberra before his own election to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly.
NSW parliament
He was elected as the National Party member for
Port Macquarie
Port Macquarie is a coastal town in the local government area of Port Macquarie-Hastings. It is located on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales, Australia, about north of Sydney, and south of Brisbane. The town is located on the Tasman Sea co ...
at a by-election on 30 November 1996 after the retirement of National Party member
Wendy Machin
Wendy Susan Machin (born 14 October 1958 in Wingham, New South Wales), was the president of the National Roads and Motorists' Association (NRMA). She was the first woman member of the Nationals elected to the New South Wales Parliament and was ...
on 28 August, winning 46.71% of the primary vote against John Barrett, a former
Liberal Party candidate who stood as an independent after the Liberals, then led by
Peter Collins, decided not to run a candidate. However, the Nationals lost almost six percent of their primary vote from 1995, and their two-party majority fell to a marginal four percent.
At his election, he was the youngest member of the NSW Legislative Assembly.
He stood again at the 1999 election, increasing his primary vote to 56.05% and his two-party vote to 66.6%, enough to revert Port Macquarie to its traditional status as a safe National seat.
Under Opposition Leader
Kerry Chikarovski
Kerry Anne Chikarovski (née Bartels; 4 April 1956) is a former Australian politician who served as leader of the Liberal Party in New South Wales and Leader of the Opposition between 1998 and 2002, the first woman to hold the post.
Early li ...
, on 19 April 1999 he was appointed as the Shadow Minister for Sport and Recreation and the Shadow Minister for Fisheries and Ports. Following a Shadow Cabinet reshuffle on 1 February 2000, Oakeshott lost Fisheries and Ports and took on the shadow portfolio of Gaming and Racing.
However, he had become increasingly dissatisfied with the National Party, stating that he was the youngest person at most meetings he attended, and found himself in opposition to many of the party's policies.
Almost immediately after his election to the legislature, Oakeshott identified a number of points of disagreement. He was not at home with the party's strong conservatism on social policy; he recalled being "massively heavied" not to support a Labor bill for a safe injecting room trial. He was also unnerved by a senior National claiming that "blacks and poofters" were gaining too much influence in the party; he took particular offence to the former because his wife is of South Seas descent. He was also pressured to fall into line on the Nationals' staunch opposition to
a republic.
He later said that he should have done "more due diligence" on the Nationals' ideology, saying that he would have never joined the party had he known about its conservative bent. He only did so because he was a budding political consultant and "they're the party around here, I'm a young bloke, I need a job." (Port Macquarie and its predecessor seat,
Oxley Oxley may refer to:
Places
Australia
Australian Capital Territory
* Oxley, Australian Capital Territory is a suburb of Canberra, Australia
Queensland
*Oxley, Queensland is a suburb of Brisbane, Australia
**Oxley railway station, Brisbane ...
, had been in the hands of a conservative party without interruption since 1927, and in the hands of the Nationals for all but six years since 1944.) He added that he didn't think the Nationals didn't do "enough due diligence on me" prior to clearing him to stand for Port Macquarie.
He also questioned the relevance of the Nationals in an electorate transformed by demographic change and the growth of tourism. Increasingly, he concluded that as long as he remained in the National party room, he would be "a square peg in a round hole." He believed that he had three options–spend a decade in the legislature as a "robotron" National member, quit politics, or run as an independent.
Oakeshott resigned from both the shadow cabinet and the National Party on 9 March 2002.
He subsequently retained the seat as an independent at the 2003 New South Wales State election, gaining 69.75% of the primary vote, compared to 14% for the National Party candidate. After preferences, he won 82 percent of the two-candidate vote, making Port Macquarie the safest seat in the legislature.
He retained the seat almost as easily in 2007, winning 78 percent of the vote after preferences were distributed.
During his tenure as the state member for Port Macquarie Oakeshott completed a law degree at Macquarie University.
Federal parliament
There were suggestions that Oakeshott would stand as an independent candidate at the
2004 federal election against his former boss and National Party leader Mark Vaile in the
seat of Lyne, based on Port Macquarie, but he did not nominate.
First term
In April 2008, following the defeat of the
Howard Government, Liberal Senator
Bill Heffernan
William Daniel Heffernan (born 3 March 1943), is an Australian former politician who was a Liberal Party member of the Senate representing the state of New South Wales from September 1996 to May 2016.
Early life and background
Heffernan was bo ...
approached Oakeshott to consider standing as a joint Liberal-National candidate in Lyne should Vaile retire and a by-election be called. He did not comment at the time because Vaile had not announced his intentions.
After Vaile announced his resignation from Parliament on 19 July 2008, Oakeshott announced that he would consider standing for the seat in
the ensuing by-election.
On 5 August 2008 Oakeshott resigned from the NSW parliament to stand as an independent candidate at the federal by-election for Lyne. His advisor,
Peter Besseling, won the
by-election
A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...
for his state seat.
Oakeshott won virtually every booth in the electorate, receiving about two-thirds of the primary vote. The extent of his primary vote saw him receive more than $100,000 in electoral reimbursements from the
Australian Electoral Commission.
In his first term, Oakeshott voted 32 times with the ruling
Labor government (including in support of the proposed emission trading scheme) and nine times with the opposition. He has explained that this record was not indicative of support for Labor's policy platform, but rather because he believed in allowing governments to govern.
Second term – support for minority government
Oakeshott was re-elected in the
2010 Australian federal election
The 2010 Australian federal election was held on Saturday, 21 August 2010 to elect members of the 43rd Parliament of Australia. The incumbent centre-left Australian Labor Party led by Prime Minister Julia Gillard won a second term against the op ...
. With neither Labor nor the Liberal/National
Coalition
A coalition is a group formed when two or more people or groups temporarily work together to achieve a common goal. The term is most frequently used to denote a formation of power in political or economical spaces.
Formation
According to ''A Gui ...
having enough members to form government on their own, he became one of a number of independents whose support was sought by both sides in a bid to form a minority government. Among the legislation that he supported was the proposed emissions trading scheme. Oakeshott decided with the other incumbent independents,
Bob Katter and
Tony Windsor
Antony Harold Curties Windsor, (born 2 September 1950) is a former Australian politician. Windsor was an independent member for the New South Wales Legislative Assembly seat of Tamworth from 1991 to 2001 − supporting the incumbent Greiner L ...
, to negotiate as a bloc. While holding different opinions on the issue of climate change, all three have highlighted broadband as a policy important to them.
Oakeshott expressed his desire to establish stable government and raised concerns that a 76-seat government was "a by-election away from trouble" and, to avoid this, he proposed the formation of a government with ministers from both of the usually antagonistic major parties. If no stable government capable of governing for the full three-year term could be formed, he recommended that the government should call a new election.
On 7 September 2010, Oakeshott gave his backing to the formation of a Labor minority government. He made the announcement at the end of a 17-minute speech. After announcing his decision, he stated that he had been offered a ministry by Julia Gillard and would be considering the offer.
On 10 September 2010 he announced that he had turned down becoming the minister for Regional Australia, a portfolio created because of the agreement between himself, Tony Windsor and the ALP.
Oakeshott later released a statement saying that he would accept nomination to be the
Speaker of the Australian House of Representatives
The Speaker of the House of Representatives is the presiding officer of the House of Representatives, the lower house of the Parliament of Australia. The counterpart in the upper house is the President of the Senate. The office of Speaker was ...
if he were nominated by another member, provided proposed Parliamentary reforms were put into place.
In the event, he was not nominated, and Labor's
Harry Jenkins
Henry Alfred "Harry" Jenkins, (born 18 August 1952) is a former Australian politician. He was a member of the House of Representatives from 1986 to 2013, representing the Australian Labor Party (ALP).
Jenkins served as the 26th Speaker of ...
was elected unopposed as speaker.
Following Jenkins' resignation from the speakership in November 2011, Oakeshott was again offered the speakership, this time by opposition leader
Tony Abbott, in a deal that would deliver government to the Liberal-National coalition. Oakeshott declined and
Peter Slipper
Peter Neil Slipper (born 14 February 1950) is a former Australian politician who served in the House of Representatives from 1984 to 1987 and from 1993 to 2013, representing the Division of Fisher in Queensland. He was Speaker of the House of ...
, a coalition MP, became speaker, allowing the Labor Party to continue in minority government.
Shortly before the
Australian Labor Party leadership spill, 2012
A leadership spill in the Australian Labor Party, the party of government in the Parliament of Australia, was held on 27 February 2012 at 10 am AEDT, followed by a ballot. The Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, announced the spill at a press confe ...
, Oakeshott stated that he would not, as a matter of course, continue to support the minority Labor Government if Labor changed leaders. He further stated that he would be prepared to work with whoever could provide stable government and would consider negotiating with the Liberal-National coalition to that end, although his preference would be to deal with former opposition leader
Malcolm Turnbull over Tony Abbott. In the event, Prime Minister Julia Gillard survived the leadership spill and Oakeshott continued his support for the minority Labor Government, although he again expressed support for Turnbull over Abbott shortly after the leadership spill was decided.
Oakeshott's support for Labor didn't play well with his constituents. Despite his large personal majority, both his federal and state electorates were still comfortably safe National seats in "traditional" two-party matchups. Proving this, Besseling lost Port Macquarie to the Nationals'
Leslie Williams at the
2011 state election partly due to voter anger at Oakeshott's support for Gillard.
Immigration legislation
In February 2012, Oakeshott introduced a
private member's bill
A private member's bill is a bill (proposed law) introduced into a legislature by a legislator who is not acting on behalf of the executive branch. The designation "private member's bill" is used in most Westminster system jurisdictions, in whi ...
to allow the Australian
Minister of Immigration to authorise sending asylum seekers to any country that is part of the
Bali Process. In June 2012, following the sinking of two asylum seeker boats in the Indian Ocean within a week that resulted in significant loss of life, the bill was brought up for immediate debate in the
House of Representatives. The
bill
Bill(s) may refer to:
Common meanings
* Banknote, paper cash (especially in the United States)
* Bill (law), a proposed law put before a legislature
* Invoice, commercial document issued by a seller to a buyer
* Bill, a bird or animal's beak
Plac ...
, along with an amendment by independent MP
Andrew Wilkie
Andrew Damien Wilkie (born 8 November 1961) is an Australian politician and independent federal member for Clark. Before entering politics Wilkie was an infantry officer in the Australian Army., Australian Parliament House Biographies; 19 Augu ...
to make the legislation valid only for 12 months, was passed in the House of Representatives with the support of government members and independents.
The bill, seen as a compromise between the Government's desire to allow processing of asylum seekers in
Malaysia
Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...
and the reinstatement of the
Pacific Solution
Pacific Solution is the name given to the Government of Australia policy of transporting asylum seekers to detention centres on island nations in the Pacific Ocean, rather than allowing them to land on the Australian mainland. Initially imple ...
sought by the opposition Coalition, was not supported by the opposition or the
Australian Greens
The Australian Greens, commonly known as The Greens, are a confederation of Green state and territory political parties in Australia. As of the 2022 federal election, the Greens are the third largest political party in Australia by vote and th ...
on the basis that it would allow processing of asylum seekers in countries that were not signatory to the
United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees
The Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, also known as the 1951 Refugee Convention or the Geneva Convention of 28 July 1951, is a United Nations multilateral treaty that defines who a refugee is, and sets out the rights of individuals ...
. An amendment to the bill, introduced by the Shadow Minister for Immigration & Citizenship
Scott Morrison, to limit processing of asylum seekers to nations that had signed the convention was defeated.
The Oakeshott bill was not passed by the
Senate
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
.
Retirement
Oakeshott retired from politics prior to the
2013 federal election, and did not contest his seat.
It was subsequently won by the National Party candidate
David Gillespie
David "Cement" Gillespie (born 22 March 1964) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played as a and forward in the 1980s and 1990s. Gillespie played for the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs, Western Suburbs Magpies, ...
.
Comeback
In June 2016, Oakeshott announced his candidacy for a return to federal politics at the
federal election on 2 July. He ran as an independent in
Cowper, which now includes Port Macquarie following a redistribution.
[ Multiple seat-level opinion polls in the seat of Cowper found incumbent National ]Luke Hartsuyker
Luke Hartsuyker (born 26 October 1959) is a former Australian politician who was a member of the House of Representatives from 2001 to 2019, representing the Division of Cowper in New South Wales for the National Party. He served as a governmen ...
and Oakeshott neck and neck on the two-party
A two-party system is a political party system in which two major political parties consistently dominate the political landscape. At any point in time, one of the two parties typically holds a majority in the legislature and is usually referr ...
vote. While Hartsuyker retained the seat, Oakeshott reduced the National majority from a comfortably safe 13.1 percent to a marginal 4.5 percent.
In January 2019, Oakeshott announced he would stand again in Cowper at the 2019 Australian federal election
The 2019 Australian federal election was held on Saturday 18 May 2019 to elect members of the 46th Parliament of Australia. The election had been called following the dissolution of the 45th Parliament as elected at the 2016 double dissolut ...
. He was unsuccessful in his bid to win the seat.
In October 2021 Oakeshott was named as an advisor for climate fund, Climate 200
Climate 200 is an Australian company that provides political funding. It describes itself as a "community crowdfunding initiative" that supports community-backed independents to stand for election to advance climate policy, reduce greenhouse g ...
.
Post-politics
In 2017, Oakeshott was among the first batch of students to begin studying a undergraduate medical degree at University of New South Wales
The University of New South Wales (UNSW), also known as UNSW Sydney, is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the founding members of Group of Eight, a coalition of Australian research-intensive ...
's new Rural Clinical School Campus in Port Macquarie
Port Macquarie is a coastal town in the local government area of Port Macquarie-Hastings. It is located on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales, Australia, about north of Sydney, and south of Brisbane. The town is located on the Tasman Sea co ...
. He graduated in November 2022. Oakeshott said he aimed to work as a regional general practitioner in the Port Macquarie area.
Private life
In May 2012, Oakeshott revealed that he suffers from Graves' disease
Graves' disease (german: Morbus Basedow), also known as toxic diffuse goiter, is an autoimmune disease that affects the thyroid. It frequently results in and is the most common cause of hyperthyroidism. It also often results in an enlarged thyr ...
.
References
External links
Rob Oakeshott official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oakeshott, Rob
1969 births
Living people
Independent members of the Parliament of New South Wales
National Party of Australia members of the Parliament of New South Wales
Australian republicans
Independent members of the Parliament of Australia
Macquarie Law School alumni
Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly
Members of the Australian House of Representatives
Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Lyne
People from Lismore, New South Wales
University of Sydney alumni
People educated at Barker College
20th-century Australian politicians
21st-century Australian politicians
University of Wollongong alumni