This sector ceased to exist when, between 1989 and 1992, the Hawke-Keating government implemented the sweeping reforms of Education Minister John Dawkins.
A year after the Labor government's defeat at the 1993 election, Lawrence was offered an opportunity to enter federal politics with the retirement of John Dawkins, who had resigned as Member for Fremantle.
In 1977 Dawkins returned to the House as member for the safe Labor seat of Fremantle, succeeding Kim Beazley (senior), and defeating his son, Kim Beazley, for the Labor preselection.
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In 1974, aged 27, Dawkins was elected to the House of Representatives for the marginal seat of Tangney, but he was defeated at the 1975 election by Liberal Peter Richardson which followed the dismissal of the Whitlam government.
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Parkinson had previously served as the inaugural Secretary of the Department of Climate Change, Deputy Secretary of the Department of the Treasury, an International Monetary Fund official, and an advisor to former Australian Treasurer, John Dawkins.
John Dawkins had held Fremantle for the Labor Party since 1977, and he had been a minister in the Hawke and Keating governments, and had been Treasurer since December 1991.