| Bruce |
Division of Calare | Calwell |
 Hon John Cobb (Nat) His electorate website |  |
Location: Central NSW: Bourke, Cowra, Narromine, Orange Division named for: Indigenous name of the Lachlan River Median weekly family income: $798 (117th highest) Persons born in non English speaking countries: 2.4% (148th highest) Persons of Indigenous origin: 7.3% (7th highest) Persons in professional occupations: 30.0% (40th highest) Persons aged 65 and over: 13.5% (70th highest) Couple families with dependent children: 39.2% (61st highest) Dwellings being purchased: 21.2% (117th highest) Sitting member: Hon John Cobb (National), elected (for Parkes) 2001, 2004 (for Calare) 2007 Born: 11 February 1950, Bathurst NSW. Career: Farmer and grazier. President, NSW Farmers Association 1998-2001. Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Transport and Regional Services 2004-05. Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs 2005-06. Minister for Community Services 2006-07, Assistant Minister for the Environment and Water Resources 2007. Member Opposition Shadow Ministry from 2007. Shadow Minister for Regional Development 2007-08, Shadow Minister for Water Security 2007-08 Shadow Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry from 22 September 2008 1996 two-candidate majority: Independent over National 13.3 1998 two-candidate majority: Independent over Labor 22.3 Effect of 2001 redistribution: Cannot be calculated 2001 two-candidate majority: Independent over National 25.0 2004 two-candidate majority: Independent over Labor 21.2 Effect of 2006 redistribution: Cannot be calculated 2007 notional two-party majority: National majority unknown 2007 two-party majority: National 12.0 
2004 enrolment: 87,358 2007 enrolment: 89,080 (+02.0%) (new boundaries) Calare has existed since 1906, when the old seat of Canobolas was renamed, and for most that time has been in the Central West of NSW, based on towns like Orange, Forbes, Parkes and Cowra. Like all rural seats, it has a low level of median family income and a low level of people born in non English speaking countries. Although it has occasionally been won by Labor, Calare has usually been a conservative seat. At the 1977 redistribution it was dragged eastwards, losing its western rural areas and gaining the Labor strongholds of Bathurst and Lithgow. Labor's David Simmons won it in 1983 and held it until he retired in 1996. A popular independent, Peter Andren, then won the seat and held it without difficulty. The 2006 redistribution, however, reversed the change of 1977 and turned Calare back into a western rural seat, removing Bathurst and Lithgow and extending it as far west as Bourke and Wilcannia. Of the voters in the new Calare, 54% were in the old Calare, 42% were in the old Parkes, and 4% were in the old Gwydir. Andren retired in 2007 (he died soon after), and the sitting National member for Parkes, John Cobb, easily won the redrawn seat. Cobb had an unhappy time as a junior minister in the last term of the Howard government, but in 2008 he was given the senior position of Shadow Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. In 2007 the Nationals won most of the small rural booths by wide margins, polling over 90% of the two-party vote in Albert, Burcher and Gunningbland, and also winning all the booths in Cowra, Forbes and Parkes. Labor won two booths in Orange and few booths elsewhere. Reflecting the fact that half the seat was previously represented by an independent, there was no clear pattern of swing across the seat. | | 
Two-party vote by booth (north)
Click to enlarge map Two-party swing by booth (north)
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