The revelation is made in Mr Oakeshott's forthcoming memoir, The Independent Member for Lyne, which gives insight into the extraordinary 17-day period after the 2010 election, when a hung parliament meant that Oakeshott, and his fellow independent were left to decide whether Australia would have a Labor or a Coalition government.

Mr Oakeshott recounts that during that period he had many private conversations with Mr Turnbull and raised with him the idea of joining the cabinet of a Gillard-led minority government.

''I tell him I would only consider being a minister in a Labor government if there were others who joined me,'' Mr Oakeshott writes of the now-Communications Minister.

''I am now testing the waters with Malcolm, to see if he wants to be a minister in a Labor government, if he does I would be happy to propose it.''

The conversations were nothing more than ''flirtatious'', Mr Oakeshott says, and Mr Turnbull does not recall the suggestion being made at all.

Mr Oakeshott's memoir also gives a frank account of what it is like to be lobbied by billionaire James Packer. Mr Packer took Mr Oakeshott on a tour of his Crown Casino in 2012, when controversial gambling reforms were being discussed by the Gillard government. Mr Oakeshott says Mr Packer schmoozed him with a chilli-laden meal before trying to pressure him by letting him know he was ''very close friends'' with senior government members Stephen Conroy and Mark Arbib.

Mr Packer told him he would use his network to protect his business and ''hurt the government badly if need be'', according to Mr Oakeshott.

This was ''absolutely refuted'' by Mr Packer, said Mr Arbib, who has left politics and now works for the billionaire.