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

Before his entry into SA politics, Dawkins was an Electorate Officer to former Senator and Howard government Minister; the Hon.

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.

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

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

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

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).

[11] This plan aims to place an SPN in every local government in four years, with particular emphasis in areas with Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander communities.

This aims to help identify at risk groups and communities so that prevention networks can be put in place.

Launched in 2018 this charter is a set of guiding principles that assists how professionals talk about and react to issues relating to mental health.

Their Acting program manager states that the charter is a “ demonstration of clear bi-partisan support that also reflects a recognition of why a unified approach to mental health and suicide prevention is so important.

He has publicly stated that this is due to his own experiences and the struggles he and his wife experienced when conceiving their second child.

[16] Prior to 2014, surrogacy in south Australia was regulated by Part 2B of the Family Relationships Act 1975 (SA).

In summary this act prohibited commercial surrogacy and set out the criteria for legal altruistic surrogates.

Prior to 2014, surrogacy was legal when a recognised surrogacy agreement met the following requirements: - The surrogate mother agreed to become pregnant and surrender the custody to commissioning parents - Both commissioning parents must live in SA, be in a marriage or registered relationship of three years - The commissioning parent must be struggling to fall pregnant or carry a healthy child - Surrogate mothers must have been assessed by a specialist counselling service - No money can be exchanged - An order from the Youth Court of South Australia will confirm the legal parents of the child - A lawyer’s certificate will confirm that the surrogate has received independent legal advice.

The second factor in this amendment was in response to what was called the baby gammy incident and questions about the viability of altruistic surrogacy.

[21] Previously in South Australia surrogacy was only accessible to those who were legally married or in registered relationships of over three years.

This Bill was a response to recommendations by the South Australian Law Reform Institute and extensive consultation with the community.

Vickie Chapman, Premier of South Australia personally thanked Dawkins on his work for these reforms, publicly stating: “I would like to extend my gratitude to the Hon John Dawkins MLC, who has worked tirelessly on this issue for over a decade”.

The controversy in John Dawkins announcing his candidacy was that he went against the preferred Liberal candidate Jing Lee, running without his party's support.

Treasurer at the time Rob Lucas said that Dawkins expulsion was a result of "the inevitable consequences of the white-hot anger there is from a number of his colleagues".