Independent Member for Lyne: A Memoir

When the results of the 2010 federal elections became known, no party had a majority in the House of Representatives—it was the first hung parliament for 40 years. So both the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, and the Leader of the Opposition, Tony Abbott, set about wooing the independents—Tony Windsor, Rob Oakeshott, Bob Katter, Andrew Wilkie, and Adam Bandt of the Greens. In the end, Julia Gillard stitched together an agreement with them to form government. When it was announced, famously there was talk of a "kinder, gentler polity." That lasted for about one day! Rob Oakeshott, in his very candid and compelling memoir, relates the events leading up to this agreement and what happened thereafter, when Windsor and Oakeshott, in particular, proved themselves to be stauncher supporters of Julia Gillard than many of her party members. He remembers moments of celebration and incidents of perfidy. He writes with the same passion that drove him into politics in the first place and was the hallmark of his presence in parliament during the last three years.