Rob Oakeshott

Rob Oakeshott was born in Lismore. His father is still a doctor in the area and his grandfather Captain John Oakeshott was a prisoner of war and survived the Sandakan Death March. So he comes from excellent stock.

Australian prisoners were sent to Sandakan in 1942 to build an airstrip. By late 1944, the allies were moving toward Borneo so the Japanese sent 2,000 Australian and British prisoners to Ranau in Bornio's interior. Weak and sick prisoners staggered 260 kilometres along jungle tracks and many died along the way. Those unable to continue were killed. Only six men - all Australians - survived and Rob Oakeshott's grandfather was one of them.

He attended Barker College and was a boarder in later years. He then studied at the University of Sydney.

Rob Oakeshott is a strange man. He's already alienated himself from the Coalition by dashing Tony Abbott's hopes of becoming Prime Minister when he went with Labor. Now he's made extraordinary allegations against the Labor Party. He says there were traitors within the party who actually wanted Tony Abbott to win. Why? Because then there would be a "bloodbath" and Julia Gillard would be severely reprimanded about the demise of Kevin Rudd, calling the election early and Labor's dissppointing election campaign. He said some ALP figures "wanted us (the independents) to choose the Liberals so they could have a bloodbath in public". But he won't name them.

The Nationals have vehmently denied his allegations of racism within their party and say that he invented his own reasons for his 2002 defection. He said that during a celebration following his election to state parliament in 1996, a senior National saw his wife who is of Pacific Island heritage and said "the party was being taken over by blacks and poofters". Undeniably an ignorant, racist remark but was it enough reason to leave the party? Maybe, maybe not.

We recently found out he approached Labor Premier Morris Iemma in 2007 and asked to be considered for a job in his ministry. He declined the offer.

Rob Oakeshot seems to be under the illusion that whenever he speaks - people are interested in what he's got to say. Last night I saw Bob Katter call him "buckshot" to his face. Unfortunately, his track record shows that he hasn't earned the respect necessary to become a credible voice.

Rob Oakeshott, Independent MP for Lyne

In 2007 when Morris Iemma was Premier of NSW, he had a meeting with Independent MP Rob Oakeshott. Oakeshott asked to be considered for the job of a minister in the Iemma Labor government. But last Friday, he said he couldn't remember any such meeting taking place.

This upstart is a total fraud and pretender. Last Tuesday he put on a good show of pretending to weigh up all promises made from both parties but he didn't realize that his meeting with Iemma would become common knowledge. Iemma thought about the request and consulted several senior ministers including Michael Coster, who has confirmed that the meeting took place. Prime Minister Gillard offered this man a ministry and wonder what she thinks of him now and how glad she must be that he declined to take it.

Oakeshot grew up on Sydney's north shore, son of a prominent doctor and went to Barker College. After graduating from Sydney University he worked briefly at the Road Transport Forum before becoming a staffer for Mr Vaile, the newly elected National Party Federal MP for Lyne. Six years later in 2002, he split with the Nationals to become an independent.

Last month, he was re-elected with a large majority but Lyne is an anti-Labor electorate, in fact their anti Labor/Greens vote was the second biggest in the country. So what did he do? He pretended to weigh up all offers from both parties and do the right thing for the country, when all along, he followed his heart and voted Labor - the exact opposite of what the people of his electorate wanted.

I suspect his time in the bear pit of Canberra will be an interesting one.