Rob Oakeshott now thinks he is a Labor MP entitled to select the leader of the Labor Party. Dumping Labor and forcing a general election is hardly a credible threat from Oakeshott. It would merely bring forward his unemployment.
I believe strongly in the maxim that the best policy is the best politics. And that, when we get down to it, is why the Prime Minister is the current prime minister. But if her team seems to follow the Fitzgibbon maxim, that the most popular is the best at politics, then let’s have a popularity contest. Let’s have the election.
I’m glad he thinks that Gillard has the best policies – most Australians beg to disagree.
Let’s remember some Oakeshott comments from 7 September 2010:
I think the US expression is a turkey voting for Thanksgiving.
Turkeys don’t come much bigger than Oakeshott.
H B Bear
20 Jul 12 at 4:38 pm
All Oakshott is trying to do is keep employed for a few more weeks.He has a snowballs chance in hell of being re elected…and that is a GOOD THING.
Mother G
20 Jul 12 at 4:40 pm
Oakeshott is really stupid, sky is blue, water is wet etc
big dumb fu
20 Jul 12 at 4:46 pm
Such breathtaking hubris from dumb and dumber
Jack
20 Jul 12 at 4:51 pm
I really despise the old lezzo.
JC
20 Jul 12 at 5:09 pm
Oakeshott is a true cretin. Unprincipled as well.
Brett
20 Jul 12 at 5:11 pm
No, let’s not.
Rabz
20 Jul 12 at 5:14 pm
Oakeshott is just grandstanding. He’s obviously feeling relevance-deprivation syndrome and wants to be in the spotlight again. Nothing would make him happier than a change of Labor leadership- he would be courted and duchessed and made to feel important until he supported the new leader. It is a tragedy for the people of Australia that we are hostage to the whims of this incompetent narcissist.
Cold-Hands
20 Jul 12 at 5:32 pm
No that’s all wrong Samuel. He’s protecting the incumbent and therefore clearly thinks he’s more powerful than the faceless. Hubris is right Jack.
Keith
20 Jul 12 at 5:41 pm
His role in sabotaging Port Macquarie Council:
http://www.2gb.com/index2.php?option=com_newsmanager&task=view&id=13098
Oakeshott’s ambition to be kingmaker was evident early on. Unsurprisingly he lusted after the Speaker’s role. Unfortunately for him, it seems there’s a gulf between his ambition and his ability:
http://www.vexnews.com/2011/06/jokeshot-its-a-shame-we-cant-live-export-rob-oakeshott/
Oakeshott is a peacock with delusions of grandeur.
Ivan Denisovich
20 Jul 12 at 5:48 pm
Was that photo taken today? Seriously? That’s what two self-important wannabe kingmakers think appropriate clothing for work?
Rob
20 Jul 12 at 5:53 pm
You just close your eyes and wait. These people eventually disappear. Remember that kid? Yes, that one that used to be the queen bitch at high school? What’s her name again?
That’s Oakshott. Byebye, see you in the afterlife (hopefully not).
mareeS
20 Jul 12 at 6:04 pm
In other news the ALP is right royally screwed whatever it does.
TerjeP
20 Jul 12 at 6:16 pm
I hope he doesn’t run again. He has a young family to feed, and he won’t be able to afford a losing reelection campaign. His best hope is to save 80-100K from now till the election, and at least that will tide them over for his first 2 years of inevitable unemployment. His CV is practically worthless.
Fisky
20 Jul 12 at 6:22 pm
Oakeshott and the Lezo say they’ll bring on an election if the government doesn’t straighten up and fly right, eh?
Ahahahahahahaha.
No no, they won’t.
C.L.
20 Jul 12 at 6:28 pm
The thing that really gets me with all of this, is that it is like we are parents watching our idiot children regurgitating crap and then have them sit there & wait for approval…
No they aren’t & quite frankly if I’d wanted idiot fucking children I would have had them with the husband – who most acknowledge is the king of the rednecks!
Just Me
20 Jul 12 at 6:29 pm
Here he looks bewildered.
manalive
20 Jul 12 at 6:32 pm
the country party forces hughes and menzies out of office and slowed the rise and rise of McMahon.
there is nothing unusual in what is happening now.
Jim Rose
20 Jul 12 at 6:34 pm
You’re just realizing this Samuel?
He’s one brick short of the whole nine yards! Ha..
Anne
20 Jul 12 at 6:36 pm
Here he looks bewildered.
That is an extraordinary picture; the use of two lecterns. Absolutely galling.
dover_beach
20 Jul 12 at 6:45 pm
You’d think Fair Work Australia or the Disability Commission would be cracking down on Windsor the way he mistreats that retard Oakeshott.
Infidel Tiger
20 Jul 12 at 6:50 pm
Lol good point, IT.
JC
20 Jul 12 at 6:51 pm
Both Oakeshott and Windsor appear to be making the kind of unwarranted demands that are the subject of Criminal Code Division 139.
Perhaps it’s time they were publicly admonished by the Attorney General.
Leo G
20 Jul 12 at 6:54 pm
Yea, like hell would have to freeze over 49 times in day before that happens.
JC
20 Jul 12 at 6:55 pm
People voted him in. How wise were they?
stackja
20 Jul 12 at 7:26 pm
Dude ran as independent. This means, in the rural context, he was meant to be less free-trade oriented than the Coalition but use the threat of baking ranks to extract deals for his electorate. In short he was meant to be a Conservative but play the parliament mercilessly for rural advantage.
instead he has plumped himself down in unbreakable alliance (no playing, no manouvering) with a vocally and aggressively anti-rural, anti-regional, anti-mining (grab some rural farm/green votes, lose mining votes, no gain at best), anti-roads…. basically the ALP is wrong on a case-by-case basis on almost everything from a rural perspective.
wreckage
20 Jul 12 at 7:58 pm
They thought they were voting for something else.
Entropy
20 Jul 12 at 7:59 pm
That video is on youtube? I thought youtube had a time limit on video length?
brc
20 Jul 12 at 8:14 pm
I sincerely hope the press take him to task for this, give no mercy.
Three dogs
20 Jul 12 at 8:41 pm
Another spill must be close if Oakshott is crawling out of his foxhole with this crap again. You might get away with a bluff like this once but not twice.
Splatacrobat
20 Jul 12 at 8:42 pm
You have to be joking, anyone can see that oakshott is a moron but this government is as dumb as a box of rocks. They can’t see that every thing that they do makes their situation worse. They keep digging in and making the retribution worse.
Rob
20 Jul 12 at 9:12 pm
cartoon on the stupids.
The Moronic Lodge
20 Jul 12 at 9:13 pm
The idea that Oakeshott would bring down the government if the Labor Party dumped Gillard is utterly risible.
The bloke is a fool, we all know that, but not even he is so much of a fool as to cut off his only remaining lifeline to political relevance.
God I just wish this was all over!
James P
20 Jul 12 at 9:17 pm
Rob, I am agreeing with you. Oakshott is so full of his own importance that he thinks he is the ultimate kingmaker. I don’t think any serious Rudd backer would flinch at this false bluff.
Splatacrobat
20 Jul 12 at 9:35 pm
He doesn’t want it to end, however if it does end he wants to claim the credit. You know like how Obama killed Osama.
Last time he did this was when the Slipper/Thommo/Wilkie cluster $@,;& looked like ending things.
Rousie
20 Jul 12 at 10:32 pm
The really stupid thing about this is that – even if he were likely to follow through – it is only a “threat” if voters actually prefer Abbott.
In other words, his threat is: “I’m warning you, ALP: If you don’t support the leader I want, I might just let voters have a say on the leader they want.”
He then continues on as though this is somehow a “principled” position.
Fleeced
20 Jul 12 at 11:53 pm
Pickering’s view
Cold-Hands
20 Jul 12 at 11:58 pm
I’m with Rousie. Oakeshitt could really be dangerous for the Alliance at the moment.
The way things look, he’s going to get thrown out of his seat and essentially jobless. The local dog catcher wouldn’t hire the fuck as everyone despises him.
So what can he do to turn back a little of the love. at least this what he thinks.
He could short circuit the thing and hope people like him a little more and can end up getting a job that way.
In terms of his calculations, it would be better if he brought down the alliance than wait until they throw her out and select another leader. it would at least be better for him.
I reckon that’s what’s going on in that feeble brain.
JC
21 Jul 12 at 12:02 am
I reckon his future has long been sorted JC.
A wealthy favoured Labour supporter has already agreed to employ him after earning many millions off the gov’t teat.
JamesK
21 Jul 12 at 12:11 am
Obama’s bundlers have done a helluva lot better from govt contracts and handouts than the millions they generated for Obummer’s 2008 campaign fund
It’s the same here just not as shamelessly overt as Obummer.
JamesK
21 Jul 12 at 12:14 am
Haha… Oakeshott version of Blazing Saddles… only this time, it’s he – not the people – who are the idiots.
Fleeced
21 Jul 12 at 12:16 am
Yes Perhaps, James.
JC
21 Jul 12 at 12:16 am
I never thought of that possibility.
JC
21 Jul 12 at 12:16 am
Damn Ipad
But the problem also is that there’s a lot of ALP types joining the unemployment line, so he may think that he isn’t one of the favored.
JC
21 Jul 12 at 12:18 am
I want that Gillard skank to be VOTED out… but if it means an early election, topple her ASAP. The country can’t afford them much longer – it isn’t even worth the popcorn moments anymore.
Fleeced
21 Jul 12 at 12:48 am
Like The Price Is Right, Oakeshott wants to get as close as possible to his full term….THEN pull the plug on Gillard so he can claim he has integrity.
The Old and Unimproved Dave
21 Jul 12 at 6:14 am
That’s why everyone I know refers to him as “Dopeshott”
Jazza
21 Jul 12 at 8:58 am
my understanding was that r.Oakschott was very averse to Tony Abbott from the beginning because he thought Mr Abbott would try and ‘catholicise’ or religionise the parliament, which shows that RO has some sort of clueless bigoted nature.
Tony Abbott rarely speaks about his religious beliefs let alone bring it into the Parliament in some way.
candy
21 Jul 12 at 9:12 am
Yes it looks like it.
Oakeshott is a dopey bigot. His speech about supporting the ALP Government was about watching the Transformers movie when he was a kid. FFS.
Abbot has only really brought up religion once, in the RU-486 debate. Hardly “Catholic only” territory.
.
21 Jul 12 at 9:19 am
It seems so simple to me. Major matter of “principle” (Oakeshott-style).
Gillard stays, elections for Windsor and Oakeshott are delayed one year. Rudd comes in, elections 2 months later – much earlier than August 2013, perhaps a year earlier.
M Ryutin
21 Jul 12 at 1:20 pm
M Ryutin, I’m not quoting or asking this question in a hostile way, however you quote ‘Rudd comes in. elections 2 months later….’. I’m asking, what makes anyone think that Rudd IF he were to be asked to come back etc., and he did come back, why would he call an early election?? He must know that the ‘glory days’ are over. He is not the messiah. He still has the Carbon tax, the green problem, no he would want to be PM again simply to salve his ego, and keep us in agony for as long as possible. Oakeshitt and the old man Windsor are safe whomever takes over. If they are(the faceless men) brave enough to remove HER.
delfino
21 Jul 12 at 8:22 pm
I agree Delfino, Rudd would want time to unwind the stupid decisions as far as possible like dropping the carbon dioxide tax per unit to $5 or some other peppercorn rate.
That will take time. He would assume he could grandstand and force the opposition to support his moves.
Same goes for cattle exports to Indo and a dozen other moronic Gillard decisions.
Token
21 Jul 12 at 8:35 pm
“I’m asking, what makes anyone think that Rudd IF he were to be asked to come back etc., and he did come back, why would he call an early election??”
I think that Rudd is that vindictive that he would risk losing his seat to get back at all those Liebor MPs by calling an early election.
Maws
22 Jul 12 at 7:37 am
How? The Greens surely wouldn’t allow it and the Coalition won’t stand for anything short of abolishing it. After all, if the ALP discards their agreement with the Greens, the Greens will be in no mood to help the ALP.
Assuming it does happen though, what about the terrible optics of changing the carbon price – how important is it if it has to be lowered?
benson
22 Jul 12 at 7:51 am
I wouldn’t really have a clue whether or not Rudd would call an early election. Apart from his ego and psychic I can’t really understand him even wanting the job. Unless he wins, would he really want to be opposition leader for whatever years? All that aside, a number of commentators have claimed that he would call an early election after initial announcements and a honeymoon period etc. That reasoning is that with time the public (after internal revenge-leaking) will remember why his popularity dropped initially prior to his axing and taking time will merely cement Rudd as the one who led to a massive loss. I personally see that as the better scenario (not that I have any idea really), but seeing for years Kevin Rudd as a political nihilist believing in nothing I think he would go for the only chance and go early.
In any case, it is not what I think, it is what Oakeshott and Windsor think.
M Ryutin
22 Jul 12 at 9:36 am
Oakeshott is an idiot?
Gettaway!
kae
22 Jul 12 at 11:44 am
I can’t believe the way Rob Oakshotte is castigated by what appears to be a nasty, small minded group of people.
If he had signed up with Tony Abbott I imagine he would now be a National Hero. I have met the bloke and he is not the fool he is being made out to be by the Coalition and their Journalist lapdogs.
Alan
23 Jul 12 at 6:01 pm