John Douglas Cull a former Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n politician, was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly

New South Wales Legislative Assembly

The Legislative Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The other chamber is the Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament House in the state capital, Sydney...

 representing the rural seat of Tamworth

Electoral district of Tamworth

Tamworth is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales. It is represented by Kevin Anderson of the National Party of Australia...

 from the 2001 by-election

Tamworth by-election, 2001

A by-election was held for the New South Wales Legislative Assembly electorate of Tamworth on December 8, 2001....

 until 2003

New South Wales state election, 2003

Elections to the 53rd Parliament of New South Wales were held on Saturday 22 March 2003. All seats in the Legislative Assembly and half the seats in the Legislative Council were up for election...

 for the National Party of Australia

National Party of Australia

The National Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Traditionally representing graziers, farmers and rural voters generally, it began as the The Country Party, but adopted the name The National Country Party in 1975, changed to The National Party of Australia in 1982. The party is...

.

Early years and background

Cull owned and ran a large grain and property at Curlewis

Curlewis, New South Wales

Curlewis is a parish and a rural village on the Kamilaroi Highway, 16 kilometres south of Gunnedah, New South Wales in Australia. The village boundaries are in the Gunnedah Shire local government area of the North West Slopes portion of the New England region.-History:Curlewis was founded by...

 for much of his career. In the early 1980s, he also opened a franchise business called New England Retailing, operating four franchises of national chains in Armidale

Armidale, New South Wales

Armidale is a city in the Northern Tablelands, New South Wales, Australia. Armidale Dumaresq Shire had a population of 19,485 people according to the 2006 census. It is the administrative centre for the Northern Tablelands region...

 and Tamworth

Tamworth, New South Wales

Tamworth is a city in the New England region of New South Wales, Australia. Straddling the Peel River, Tamworth, which contains an estimated population of 47,595 people, is the major regional centre for southern New England and in the local government area of Tamworth Regional Council. The city...

. After leaving the cattle business in the early 1990s, he owned and ran the Angus and Robertson book store in Tamworth.

Poitical career

A long-time member of the National Party, Cull was preselected at the party's candidate for the 2001 by-election, sparked by the successful move from state to federal politics by conservative independent

Independent (politician)

In politics, an independent or non-party politician is an individual not affiliated to any political party. Independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between those of major political parties, a viewpoint more extreme than any major party, or they may have a viewpoint based on issues that they do...

 Tony Windsor

Tony Windsor

Antony Harold Curties "Tony" Windsor , an Australian politician, is an independent member of the House of Representatives since 2001, representing the Division of New England, New South Wales...

. Cull faced two strong independent challenges from the sometimes controversial James Treloar, the Mayor

Mayor

In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....

 of Tamworth who was Windsor's endorsed successor, and Tamworth councillor Warren Woodley. Cull ultimately won the seat by a sizable margin.

He faced a new independent challenge in the general election in 2003

New South Wales state election, 2003

Elections to the 53rd Parliament of New South Wales were held on Saturday 22 March 2003. All seats in the Legislative Assembly and half the seats in the Legislative Council were up for election...

 in the form of former Hazelton Airlines

Hazelton Airlines

Hazelton Air Services Pty Limited, trading as Hazelton Airlines, was an Australian regional airline which operated until 2001. It was established as an independent airline but by the end of its existence had become a subsidiary of Ansett Australia....

 executive Peter Draper

Peter Draper

Peter Ross Draper , a former Australian politician, represented Tamworth as an independent politician between 2003 and 2011....

, who had the strong endorsement of Windsor and popular state independent Richard Torbay

Richard Torbay

George Richard Torbay MP , an Australian politician, is an independent member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly representing Northern Tablelands since 1999. Torbay was the 30th Speaker of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, serving from 2007 until 2011, and was the first independent...

. Draper won by more than 1,400 votes, thus ending Cull's short parliamentary career.