John Dawkins

Dawkins was the son of the Hon. Maynard Boyd Dawkins MBE (1917–96) a sheep breeder, former member of Local Government and Member of the South Australian Legislative Council for the Liberal Party from 1962 to 1982.

John Samuel Letts Dawkins (born 3 July 1954) is a South Australian Politician.

He is from a family of politicians and his cousin John Dawkins was also a Politician (ALP) and the Federal Treasurer of Australia (1991-1993).

Dawkins spent his secondary schooling years at Prince Alfred College and Gawler high.

He then went on to his tertiary education, where he gathered an associate diploma in farm management from Glenormiston Agricultural College and a diploma in freelance journalism at Adelaide Tafe.

Before entering parliament, Dawkins was a primary producer.

He then worked as an Electorate Officer to an assortment of Liberal representatives including the Hon Neil Andrew MP, Hon Alexander Downer MP and Senator the Hon Nick Minchin.

Dawkins has also remained close to his roots, continuing to farm.

He has continued to work at Stud Dorset and Suffolk Sheep at Gawler River.

He was a member of the South Australian Legislative Council, representing the South Australian Division of the Liberal Party of Australia from 1997 until 2020, when he was expelled for accepting the opposition's nomination as President of the Legislative Council.

He served as an independent MLC, and as president, until March 2022, when he retired.

He was first elected to an eight-year term in the Legislative Council at the 1997 election.

John Dawkins was first elected to the Legislative Council in 1997, this was an eight-year term.

John Dawkins served as the Opposition Whip in the Legislative Council from 2002 to 2018 and he was later the President of the Legislative Council.

Representatives in the Legislative Council are members of the Upper House of the Parliament of South Australia.

They are elected to represent the whole state through a system, of proportional representation.

Its central purpose is to act as a reviewer for legislation that is passed in the lower house.

Dawkins played an active role in many parliamentary positions over the last twenty years and his main committee roles include:

During his time in politics, he was most well-known for his work on suicide prevention and surrogacy.

Suicide is the leading cause of death for South Australians between the age of 15 and 44.

Within the indigenous community this rate is more than doubled.

He was re-elected for a second eight-year term at the 2006 election, and a third eight-year term at the 2014 election.

Before his entry into SA politics, Dawkins was an Electorate Officer to former Senator and Howard government Minister; the Hon. Nick Minchin, former Foreign Minister and Liberal Party Leader; the Hon. Alexander Downer AC and former Speaker of the Australian House of Representatives; the Hon. Neil Andrew AO.

He has been a member and supporter of many and varied community clubs and organisations, including the Returned and Services League of Australia, and sporting and agricultural bodies.

He was re-elected to the same position in 2006 and again in 2014.

1. The suicide prevention plan 2017-2021

This outlines the way in which the South Australian government will reduce suicide over four years.

It largely looks at the establishment of suicide prevention networks (SPN).

An SPN builds a community of volunteers that aim to reduce the harm of suicide in their respective communities.

This includes, cross sector collaboration between local health and primary health networks, workplace peer support, prevention and postvention initiatives.

John Dawkins was announced as the Premier’s Advocate for Suicide Prevention in 2018.

He is also a key member of the Premier’s Council on Suicide Prevention, a body that consists of thirteen advocates that meet and discuss how South Australia can minimise the impact of suicide.

In this role John Dawkins helped to facilitate the following political actions:

In 2019 the ABS released statistics that showed a reduction in the suicide rate for South Australia, down from 12.8% to 12% in one year (2017-2018).

This statistic marks a 6.8 percent decrease and places South Australia below the national average.

Dawkins represented the Liberal Party of South Australia until September 2020 after he decided to nominate for the vacant Legislative Council President role.

This nomination was against his own Liberal-endorsed colleague Jing Lee.

Although Dawkins won the vote, he was expelled from the Liberal Party for standing against the party's endorsed candidate.

John Dawkins was born in Gawler South Australia, a small town 40 km north of South Australia’s capital Adelaide.

His family owned a sheep breeding station on Gawler river and Dawkins spent much of his childhood life assisting his father.