Tom Koutsantonis


Anastasious "Tom" Koutsantonis is an Australian politician in the South Australian Branch of the Australian Labor Party, representing the seats of West Torrens and Peake as a Labor member in the South Australian House of Assembly. He formerly served as Treasurer of South Australia in the Weatherill cabinet.

Background

A Greek-Australian, Koutsantonis was born in Adelaide and attended Netley Primary School and Adelaide High School. As a student at the University of Adelaide he became involved in Australian Young Labor, drove taxis and went on to run a small business before becoming an industrial officer for the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association.

Parliament

Koutsantonis was elected to the seat of Peake at the 1997 election on a margin of 4.5 points, then by 8.6 points at the 2002 election, and by 18.3 points at the 2006 election, after which Koutsantonis was elevated to the chairmanship of the economic and advisory committee.
In 2009, he was appointed to cabinet; Koutsantonis has served in a range of ministerial portfolios with responsibility for finance, state development, mineral resources and energy, small business, ministerial resources and energy, and for road safety, where Koutsantonis was forced to apologise for his "unacceptable" driving record which listed 58 traffic offences and over $10,000 in fines. He subsequently resigned the portfolio.