John Sydney "Joe" Dawkins (born 2 March 1947) is an Australian former politician who was Treasurer in the Keating Labor government from December 1991 to December 1993. He is notable for his reforms of tertiary education as Minister for Employment, Education and Training, his period as Treasurer when he attempted to increase taxes in order to balance the budget and his abrupt exit from politics.
Early life
Dawkins was born in Perth on 2 March 1947. He is the son of Muriel () and Alec Letts Dawkins. His father, originally from Adelaide, was an orthopaedic surgeon and military physician during World War II with the rank of brigadier. His maternal grandfather Sir Ernest Augustus Lee Steere was a prominent pastoralist and businessman in Western Australia, while his uncle Sir Ernest Henry Lee-Steere served as Lord Mayor of Perth in the 1970s.
Dawkins attended primary school in Cottesloe and went on to attend Scotch College, Perth. After leaving school he moved to South Australia to attend Roseworthy Agricultural College, graduating with a diploma in agriculture in 1968. He later studied economics at the University of Western Australia, graduating Bachelor of Economics in 1972 with a concentration in agricultural economics. Before entering parliament he worked for periods as a public servant and union secretary. He worked briefly for the Bureau of Agricultural Economics and with the Department of Trade and Industry from 1971 to 1972.
Political career
Early involvement
thumb|upright|Dawkins in 1974
Dawkins joined the Australian Labor Party while a student.
Dawkins was elected to the House of Representatives at the 1974 federal election, winning the newly created seat of Tangney for the ALP. He was defeated at the 1975 election by Liberal Peter Richardson.
In 2000 he was a made an Officer of the Order of Australia for service to the reform of international trade as foundation Chairman of the Cairns Group, to the reform of the federal budget, education and training, and to the Australian Parliament.
In 2000, Dawkins's family agreed to use 104 hectares of their sizeable holdings of grazing land in Forrestdale outside Perth in a property venture where the profits from land sales would be invested in research and development for technology that is conducted at the CY O'Connor ERADE Village, including research laboratories, offices and accommodation, at the entrance of the twelve hectare estate. The development was believed to be worth around $100 million.
His principal employment was as Director of Government Relations Australia, now GRACosway, a lobbying firm. He has also worked as a consultant to large Australian and foreign companies and the World Bank and the OECD. He has been awarded honorary doctorates from the University of South Australia, Federation University Australia and the Queensland University of Technology.
He was board chairman of Sovereign Gold Limited until December 2015.
In 2013 Dawkins was chairman of Vocation and earned over a million dollars when it listed on the stock exchange. The company collapsed in 2015 and Dawkins had civil proceedings from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission regarding claimed contravention of disclosure provisions. In November 2019, the judgement against Dawkins and two senior executives resulted in him being disqualified from holding directorships for two years, and fined .
Personal life
A cousin of the same name, John Dawkins, served as the independent President of the South Australian Legislative Council from 2020 to 2022.
His nephew Aussie Trump served as member of the Western Australian Legislative Council from 2023 to 2025.
Dawkins is married to Maggie Maruff, the daughter of tea-grower Allan Maruff. Their daughter Alice nominated for Labor preselection for Mayo in 2018 and Spence in 2021. Dawkins has a son and daughter with his first wife Kate, and a step-child from Maggie's first marriage.
The Dawkins family moved to a property near Eden Valley near the Barossa Valley.