Biography
 John Cobb was born at Bathurst and grew up on a family property near Mt Hope, about 100km north-west of Condobolin. He still operates a farm in the region.
John began his working life as do many farming sons - he went jackarooing in Queensland, spent some time as an overseer, worked on a mine near Mt Hope, spent 12 months on the Sydney to Moomba gas pipeline, and of course worked the family property. This gave him a solid grass roots grounding in rural life.
His family life and his professional career have been concentrated on the Central West. John enjoyed raising his many daughters on the family property and is now enjoying the pleasures of being a (rather young) grandfather.
In the 1980s John became increasingly frustrated at the way policies affecting regional NSW were being made, by politicians and bureaucrats in the city with no knowledge or regard for regional areas. He joined the NSW Farmers Association with the drive to do something about it, and began a 15-year agri-political career that culminated a three-year term as Association president.
In agri-politics, the issues that John fought for included increasing the number of doctors in regional areas, better telecommunications services for country communities, and property rights for landholders - particularly the ability of farmers to continue to develop country to feed Australians.
In 2001 John decided to take these passions to the Federal arena, and stood for the Federal seat of Parkes. He was successful in 2001, and returned, with an increased majority, at the 2004 election.
In Government, he has already enjoyed a varied career. He was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Transport and Regional Services in October 2004. In this capacity he was responsible for administering the highly successful Regional Partnerships program, and heavy vehicle transport policy.
In July 2005 he was appointed the Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs, taking responsibility for policy regarding Australian citizenship, the various aspects of our cultural diversity, and Australia's migration program.
In January 2006 John became the Minister for Families and Community Services, administering the department that operates Centrelink and the income support and assistance for families and their children, senior citizens, people with disabilities, carers and community groups. Australian Government's whole-of-government approach to programs for Indigenous Australians through the Office of Indigenous Policy Coordination.
In January (2007), as part of the Australian Government's $10 billion plan to address the problems of water availability in the Murray-Darling Basin, John was appointed Assistant Minister for the Environment and Water. His particular role in this portfolio has been to help develop and refine implementation of the plan by constant communications with farmers, irrigators and other stakeholders in the Basin. It is a role particularly close to John's heart, given the frustrations with policy-makers that led him to a political career in the first place.
A redistribution of Federal seats in 2007 for NSW, massively changed John's electorate of Parkes. About 80pc of the former seat of Parkes now lies with the seat of Calare - which has more than trebled in size.
 After much soul-searching, John decided in 2007 to maintain his connection with the Central West and contest the "new" Calare at the coming election. As he said, when he announced his decision, "I decided to follow my heart, and the Central West is my heartland".
Since winning the seat of Calare, John has established new offices in Orange and Cobar, which provides the majority of the electorate with access to an office within two hours drive time.
After the 2007 election, John was appointed to the Shadow Cabinet position of Shadow Minister for Regional Development and Water Security. A Shadow Cabinet reshuffle in September 2008 saw John appointed to the portfolio for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.
With the reshuffle of the Shadow Cabinet on 8th December 2009, John has now gained the responsibility of “Food Security” within his portfolio, hence John is now Shadow Minister for Agriculture, Food Security, Fisheries and Forestry.
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