Rob Oakeshott says he is giving people the opportunity for change, but is realistic of the challenge ahead.
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The former federal Independent said the mood in the Cowper electorate is red hot for change, but whether that transfers to the ballot box will be the deciding factor.
“I have nothing to lose and everything to gain at this election,” he said.
“I fully understand that there will be people out there who will say: ‘you went with (Julia) Gillard, you’re a dog’. And some will literally break their pencil at the ballot voting box (with anger) to vote elsewhere.
“But when people are in the privacy of the voting booth, and it is just them, a ballot paper and a pencil … will they take the opportunity to make a change. That’s what this election is about.”
He described the battle for Cowper as a referendum on himself in the south and on incumbent Luke Hartsuyker in the north.
At the core of his decision to re-enter the federal scene, Mr Oakeshott said he was simply ‘cranky’.
“And I think we should be cranky … I could metaphorically kick the dog and throw the shoes at the television. Or I can stand. I think standing is right because it is a result of being completely frustrated by the direction federal politics is taking.”
Older and wiser and facing his seventh election, Mr Oakeshott said he has learnt where to push back at criticisms. He said he was blindsided at times in the past ‘but there are things that I am not going to let rock my zen this time’.
And that’s because of a desire to keep his focus on the job.
“The community-based stuff is the attraction. I think there is a story to be told on how our area can have a more honest partner with government to get more done.
“I am quite genuinely excited about things like the university, hospital growth and Pacific Highway upgrade. These are all good things.
“As a community we can maximise the place we live in if we can be smart about it. I think that is the conversation at the local level that is a bit lost right now with the party politics.
“It is exciting to be involved in helping change that.”
He said the community can choose if it wants to be involved in that change on election day.
“I will cop that judgment. I’m very comfortable with the result either way,” he said. “For me it’s like a win … having the courage of my convictions to stand up to the criticism."
He said the strong message coming from the community was that they now had a choice.
Coupled with that is the news, he says, that the government has now promised nearly $30 million in the space of a week and a half. He also pointed to the wall to wall advertising now emerging and the recent visits by a current deputy prime minister and a former prime minister.
“Nothing was happening before that and everyone can now see things are happening. So, just by standing, there is a win in itself.”
Mr Oakeshott said it would be great to get elected but if not, ‘I think it will be a very close seat for the next term and that will drive results as well and activity.
“Importantly, the exercise of this election period is to call out inaction. There is a lot of people who want to call that out with me too.”
The former Independent also hit out at what he called the ‘punching down by government’. He says this was another reason for his decision to returning to the political scene.
“We are disadvantaged ... in Cowper. Where government sees savings measures and possibilities to raise revenue, they lean toward hurting our communities more than others.
“I am a progressive man, always have been. And I believe in a progressive system of government. In other terms it is a charitable form of government and I think democracy is at its best when those people in need get the most and those least in need get the least.
“It is a model of welfare capitalism. And I reckon that’s when we go well as a country. But I don’t see that (happening) at the moment.”
Mr Oakeshott called party politics ‘the imposters who turned up in the last 200 years’ while democracy was much deeper and richer than that.
“It has been ingrained into our political psyche that it is somehow unsafe to have a parliament that deals with complexity and where we are not controlled by one political party or the other.
“Over time, I have come up with a different view: that the original concept is a good one.
”And while much of what is being dealt with by government is complex, I trust the Australian people that we can have that conversation. Complexity is not chaos, it is at the very heart of democracy.”