Cowper candidate says his main opposition is 2GB and the Australian as Tony Windsor refers News Corp article to lawyers

The independent Cowper candidate Rob Oakeshott has booked blanket commercials for the past two days during radio shows of the 2GB broadcasters Ray Hadley and Alan Jones in his area as part of a strategy to combat their editorials against him.

Oakeshott, who is challenging the National MP Luke Hartsuyker in Cowper, told Guardian Australia he had decided to announce his candidature late – on 10 June – owing to the expected campaign against him in sections of the media.

“I decided to roll myself up into as small a ball as possible – just be a normal member of the community – and then go late and hard in order to neutralise the expected rubbish from commercial media,” he said.

“Otherwise, as is now on full display, [media] come in and muddy the waters. If it was me versus the Nats, it would be a very different strategy. But it’s not. It’s me versus the Nats, 2GB and the Oz. Thankfully, the majority in the community can see it for what it is.”



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Oakeshott, who was elected to state parliament in 1996 before leaving to become independent in 2002, said the media landscape and the polarisation of politics had changed markedly during that time. Since he left the federal parliament in 2013 he has been a patron and founding board member of the Public Interest Journalism Foundation.

“For the fans of West Wing, the gutter war does shape political strategy,” he said. “I think political parties have very tight arrangements with select media during elections and the conversation is too often controlled by those desperately trying to hold on to power.

“Because of this, I have been forced to spend heavily in certain for-profit media outlets in order to neutralise those voices.”

Oakeshott is one of three independents, including the independent candidate for New England Tony Windsor and the Denison independent MP, Andrew Wilkie, who supported Julia Gillard’s government in 2010.



He and Windsor are both attempting to return to parliament while the independent senator Nick Xenophon has established his own party, the Nick Xenophon Team. He could win a swag of seats in his home state of South Australia, where he is polling almost a quarter of the primary vote in some seats.

On Tuesday Windsor faced allegations in the Australian from six former school peers who said he took part in a “Sack system”, which encouraged older students to control younger students with physical intimidation and punishment.

The students, from Tamworth’s Farrer Memorial agricultural high school, alleged that Windsor whipped younger boys and hit their knuckles with the back of a knife, the Australian said.



Windsor issued a statement saying he refused to respond to “gutter journalism” and had referred the article to his lawyers.



Asked on Tuesday whether he thought the campaign against Windsor had become overly personal, Malcolm Turnbull said: “I’m not going to engage in personality politics.



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“I would simply make the observation, and this is a historical fact, that in 2010 the voters of New England re-elected Tony Windsor, whom they regarded with every good reason as an independent conservative member and they ended up with him supporting a Labor-Greens leftwing government led by Julia Gillard.”



Earlier in the campaign Xenophon conceded allegations published in the Australian that he had failed to declare he was a director of Adelaide Tower Pty Ltd, saying it was an “embarrassing oversight”.



Since he announced his candidacy, Oakeshott has been the subject of allegations from the deputy prime minister, Barnaby Joyce, and in the Australian that he is running for money because, under electoral laws, all candidates who ­receive more than 4% are entitled to public funding of $2.62 a vote.



Oakeshott said the political and media campaign targeting independents and minor parties raised serious questions for democracy.



“I still don’t have a handle on why they have a problem with the original concept of democracy,” Oakeshott said. “Some media are getting personal and the question we need to be asking is who is talking to who? Who is paying who? What are the kickbacks to make them go in so hard for a certain side of politics?

“This is a serious unanswered question that is unhealthy for democracy. I am just a bloke in a community that expresses ideas through politics – that’s it. So this top-shelf demonising raises a lot of questions. I might have run away before but that is exactly the reason I am running now.”



Oakeshott said he was concerned that the political debate was controlled by media voices and the community was ceding the “public square”, which has traditionally encouraged debate.



“This is therefore a battle for the ownership of the public square,” he said. “I am a traditionalist in that I think community should be heard.

“Commercial media – media for profit – are challenging this, and trying to overtake community voices because they prey on dividing community to suit their own commercial interests.”



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As the advertisements began running on 2GB on Tuesday, Hadley was alerted by a listener and conceded he could not stop the local stations including 2MC-FM from taking Oakeshott’s ads.



“I have no control over what other networks do but to those people who heard the ad, I have one message for you, don’t vote for that dope,” he said.



He said his program had more 36% of the audience in Port Macquarie and he could not do anything about the ads taken by Southern Cross, which broadcasts the his show in parts of Cowper.

“I don’t care how much he spends on the station 2MC-FM, I have an obligation to warn those listeners on 2CF Coffs Harbour, if you vote for Oakeshott you vote for a dope, a real dope, 100% bona fide.”

Oakeshott said he was not “complaining” about media criticism in some quarters but was rather “staring it down”.



“I’m not being a princess,” Oakeshott said. “By standing, I am staring it down. By standing, I am inviting people to have this conversation about media in Australia today, and to drill in on who exactly is paying the piper.

“While I don’t waste too much energy on it, people would be right to ask the obvious question – what is it in [Australian editor-in-chief] Paul Whittaker or Ray Hadley’s head that they are so blindly obsessed with someone they have never met.

“For me, I can only conclude someone is paying their bills and it’s up to them to build a case against. It is up to them to explain why they are so hard on independents for anything other than the profit motive.”



The Australian’s editor, John Lehmann, rejected Oakeshott’s characterisation of a campaign against him or others.

“The Australian is not running a campaign against Rob Oakeshott or any other candidate,” Lehmann said. “We do however feel a responsibility to our readers to scrutinise those who seek to hold public office and may well end up holding the balance of power in the new parliament.”