Biography
THE HON JOHN C KOBELKE BSc DipEd JP MLA
Minister for Police and Emergency Services; Community Safety; Water Resources; Sport and Recreation
Member for Balcatta
Crime and public safety are a constant concern across the nation and addressing issues in relation to law and order are a high priority for John. Working with the highly professional WA Police, and continuing to deliver safer communities, reduced crime and increased community support for policing, forms a large part of his daily work.
John is committed to supporting the State’s career fire fighters and 30,000 fantastic Emergency Service volunteers by better equipping them to undertake the role of helping the West Australian community in their time of need.
With responsibility for securing the State's water future, John oversees continued improvements in water use efficiency, the achievement of significant advances in water reuse, the planning and developing of new sources of water in a timely manner and protection of the value of our existing water sources. All this is done while tackling the twin pressures of growing demand from population, industry and agricultural and the impact of a drying climate. As Minister, John has overseen the construction of the Kwinana Seawater desalination plant which delivers 17% of the water for the state’s integrated water supply scheme.
As Sport and Recreation Minister, John is working to raise the level of physical activity of all Western Australians while providing first-class sporting facilities for professional, semi-professional amateur and recreational sporting organisations. A major focus of his work in this field is upon the development of a major stadium to meet the future long-term needs of our major sports.
John championed the restoration of consumer protection after the disasterous finance brokers mess left by the last Liberal Government. New legislation he developed leads the nation in providing greater protection to consumers by licensing finance brokers and mortgage originators.
He was responsible for the legislative and policy changes that restored fairness in Western Australia's industrial relations system. These reforms saw the State adult minimum wage increased by $100 per week in under four years. He drove the most extensive reforms in workers' compensation in decades, delivering new and improved benefits to injured workers and has achieved major improvements to the State's occupational safety and health laws to better protect workers from injury and ill-health.
While Minister for Indigenous Affairs, John saw WA lead the nation in developing the Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage reports to ensure the efforts achieved real and measurable outcomes.
John has served as Minister for Training (2001-2003) and Minister Assisting in Public Sector Management (2003-2005).
In Opposition from 1993 to 2000, John was at different times Labor spokesperson for Labour Relations, Planning, Lands, Housing, Youth, Education, Employment and Training, Works and Services and Freedom of Information. In 1992 John was the Parliamentary Secretary to Cabinet in the Lawrence Government.
In February 1989, he was elected to the seat of Nollamara, which has been re-named Balcatta in a redistribution.
Born in Perth and growing up in Bayswater, John completed his secondary schooling at Christian Brothers' High School, Highgate. He has a Bachelor of Science Degree and Diploma of Education from the University of Western Australia. He taught science, mathematics and computing at St Louis School in Claremont, Girrawheen Senior High School, John Curtin Senior High School in Fremantle and Scarborough Senior High School. John is very active in his local community and is patron of several sporting clubs and community organisations. He is married with three sons.