The return of the self-interested: Rob Oakeshott, the sequel

“We are no longer forgotten,” said Rob Oakeshott, announcing his second reanimation as a federal political candidate.

How could we forget him and his ilk? Oakeshott is indeed a living reminder of the self-interest, deceptions and lack of accountability in politics.

No longer forgotten are the opportunists who milk the system, promise the world and run whenever there is something to gain but run away when there is a reckoning on offer. This is the story of Oakeshott, a man who embodies the reason our politics is in disarray yet often has been a beneficiary of that same shambles.

With disillusionment so rife — fuelled by the antics of confused major parties and populist independents such as Oakeshott — the ultimate irony is disaffected voters might turn to him as the outsider. In the campaign he will come across as a kooky cross between Donald Trump and Forrest Gump.

Oakeshott once styled himself as a conservative independent to win over the conservative voters of Lyne. He then broke faith with those voters and installed the minority Labor government of Julia Gillard and backed her in as she lost control of maritime borders and introduced the carbon tax she had vowed against.

OakeyMP, as he styled himself on Twitter, uttered many words and befriended many leftist journalists but said little and did less.

When the time came to face the verdict of voters, he and fellow Labor-installer Tony Windsor ran for the hills.

Incapable of summoning the character or political courage to face an electorate that would have had its vengeance, neither ran in 2013. It was pathetic.

Yet once that storm passed, both men have played media games to talk up their prospects and bathe in attention.

Oakeshott ran at the last election in a contest he never had a chance to win but would always net some public electoral funding (he received $70,000).

Now he is back as a self-styled local hero, promising swimming pools, playing fields and basketball courts — life in his new target seat of Cowper will be like a box of chocolates: voters will never know what they get.

But as long as there is a bit of attention to be had, public funding on offer and zero accountability from parties or voters, Oakeshott, most likely, will behave like Gump, and keep running.