John Sydney Dawkins was born in Perth, Western Australia, on 2 March 1947. He was educated at Cottesloe Primary School and Scotch College and in 1968 received a Diploma of Agriculture from the Roseworthy College in South Australia.

He subsequently graduated in economics with an agricultural economic emphasis from the University of Western Australia and worked for a time as a public servant and as a union secretary.

Having joined the ALP while a student, he was elected in 1974 at the age of 27 to represent the new House of Representatives seat of Tangney in Perth's southern suburbs. After losing this seat in the 1975 landslide he re-entered the House of Representatives in 1977, winning the Fremantle seat left vacant with the retirement of Kim Beazley senior who had held the seat for more than 30 years.

Between 1977 and 1979 Dawkins was vice president of the Western Australian branch of the ALP, a member of the National Executive from 1981 to 1982 and a delegate to the National Conference in 1982 and 1984.

Dawkins was promoted to Labor's front bench in 1980 and when the Hawke Government came to power in 1983 he entered the ministry as Minister for Finance and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister on Public Service Matters.

From 1984 to 1987 he served as Minister for Trade and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Youth Affairs and then, from July 1987 until Prime Minister Hawke was unseated by a party room vote, Dawkins was Minister for Employment, Education and Training. It was during this period that he became associated with the decision to reintroduce charges for tertiary education students in the form of the Higher Education Contribution System (HECS).

When Paul Keating became prime minister in December 1991 Dawkins was appointed Treasurer and delivered two budgets before resigning from the post in December 1993 and as member for Fremantle in February 1994.

As Trade minister he had assisted in the formation in 1986 of the Cairns group of eighteen agricultural exporting nations.

During his resignation speech he suggested moving the month for the presentation of the annual budget from August to May, a proposal which Cabinet accepted and which was adopted forthwith.

Dawkins went to live in Adelaide in 1996 and since that time has pursued a variety of business interests in banking (including rural banking), gas marketing and government relations as well as owning a vineyard.