In late 1994, Oldfield won the Liberal preselection for the Electoral district of Manly. At the 1995 state election, Oldfield fell 243 votes short of winning the seat from Independent Peter Macdonald. Despite the marginal number of votes required to win the seat, only a nominal swing of 0.3 was achieved. Oldfield received 16,433 votes (49.6%) in the Two-party-preferred result, while Macdonald received 16,676 votes (50.4%) in the Two-party-preferred result. Oldfield did not contest the next preselection battle for the seat.
