Economy
And Oakeshott says NO
Rob Oakeshott won’t be a minister in a Labor minority government.
This afternoon Mr Oakeshott told the Prime Minister he would not join her frontbench.
Mr Oakeshott says there is still a lot of political heat around his position and there would have been problems for the regional package he negotiated if he was also the relevant minister.
He says the package can be better delivered by someone with potentially less thorns on them than he has at the moment.
“The main consideration was the regional Australia package and making sure it survives the next three years of parliamentary life and it not being killed along the way by political games that might get played,” he told reporters this afternoon.