Kouts: The inside story of his rise, fall … and rise again
He’s one of SA Parliament’s toughest customers, but you may be surprised to learn who “Labor’s Lion” is friendly with behind the scenes.
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It is days after the 2018 state election. The phone rings and Tom Koutsantonis’s name pops up.
He talks about Labor’s loss, what he thinks the party had done wrong, his assessment of the media coverage (fair, no favours) and shares some colourful thoughts on the new government.
Despite the fact Labor is far from wiped off the map, performing better than many pundits expected (they retained a respectable 19 seats), he is despondent.
Most of all, he sounds exhausted.
It is no surprise that speculation is rife he will quit politics.
“I’m just going to be so bored,” the outgoing treasurer says.
For a man who so clearly thrived on the cut and thrust of government, a spell in Opposition is a less than appealing prospect.
Asked about his future, he is noncommittal.
What about even going for leader?
He doesn’t hesitate: “Nope. There’s only one person who can win it back for us.”
“Who?”
“Peter Malinauskas.”
Fast forward four years and Malinauskas is giving his victory speech, basking in a landslide win decided only a matter of hours after the polls close.
He leaves a special spot for his loyal mate. His attack dog. The bloke who ended up staying and stood by him.
“Every team needs a lion,” Malinauskas says.
“We have a loyal Labor lion in the honourable Tom Koutsantonis.”
WALKING ON SUNSHINE
Fast forward four and a bit years and Koutsantonis is beaming as he walks into a busy city cafe on a mild Adelaide afternoon a few weeks after the victory.
As he strolls in, John Schumann of Redgum fame calls him over from a nearby table.
Congratulations Tom, just don’t stuff it up, is a paraphrased and heavily edited version of Schumann’s statement.
Koutsantonis is congratulated by another couple before he takes a seat.
Smiling from ear to ear, he says: “That’s been happening a bit. People are enjoying having a bit of a chat.”
He is clearly up and about, looking refreshed and younger than his 50 years
And who could blame him?
Four years after facing political oblivion and openly questioning his own political future, he’s back on the winning team.
Not to mention a key player in the victory.
First off the bat, he says he was clearly touched by Malinauskas’ “lion” reference.
“It was very emotional. We’re very close. He was a groomsman at my wedding,” Koutsantonis says.
“I’ve known him a long time.
“I first met him when he was a very, very young organiser and probably still working at rallies, but I’ve always seen something in him.
“The thing with Peter is I trust him. I trust him with my kids. I trust him to know that, if we were all hit by a truck tomorrow, things would be okay with him in charge.”
Koutsantonis clearly relishes his unambiguous role as Labor’s attack dog.
The merits and ultimate effectiveness of each will depend on your political perspective, but his mitts were all over a series of carefully orchestrated attacks on his opponents.
These include (and are by no means exclusive to): the MP travel allowances scandal (from which all involved denied any wrongdoing); the repeated Labor onslaught against former minister Corey Wingard (who vehemently rejected claims of bullying); and his role in pushing an investigation into former attorney general Vickie Chapman’s role in scrapping plans to build a deep sea port on Kangaroo Island.
Chapman was cleared of any conflict of interest by an Ombudsman’s inquiry, but is quitting politics. She labelled a committee formed to investigate the claims a politically motivated “witch hunt”.
“And don’t forget Stephan Knoll,” Koutsantonis says, in reference to both the findings of misconduct over Knoll’s attempts to sack three directors from the Adelaide Cemeteries Authority board in 2019, and his resignation from cabinet in July 2020 following a travel expenses scandal.
Knoll subsequently announced he would retire at the election, robbing the Liberal Party of one of its rising stars.
Koutsantonis says the overall strategy was reasonably straightforward.
Firstly look for the weak links.
Secondly, target what he describes as the chasm between the views of the Liberals’ inner-city progressives and their conservative country cousins; the latter of which was highlighted when four MPs crossed the floor in November 2018 in anger over proposed mining reforms, arguing a new Bill did not do enough to address the power imbalance between farmers and mining companies over access to land.
It was only eight months after the election, but Labor smelt blood.
“The Liberal Party in South Australia is two very different groups of people who are compelled to work together,” Koutsantonis says.
“And therefore when conservatives were excluded from the cabinet or certain decisions were made, that caused internal tension.
“So it was very important that we prosecuted that. And those divisions weren’t created by me. Not even necessarily exploited by me … well, maybe a little bit.
“But what it really did was show that the Liberal Party is not one party in South Australia. It’s two parties that have almost nothing in common.”
Add to this the defection of Liberal MP Dan Cregan to the crossbench in October 2021, the explosion of Covid-19 after the borders reopened the following month, and problems with the Liberal brand due to growing discontent with then prime minister Scott Morrison, and an argument could be mounted that state Labor was riding the perfect wave of a disgruntled community and divided party.
It’s also put to Koutsantonis his strategy allowed him to take carriage of the “ugly work” while Malinauskas could pose for the cameras – or in the pool even – for the “good news” stories.
Koutsantonis smiles and says: “Everyone needs one (an attack dog).”
FRIENDS & ENEMIES
Political animals attract their fair share of allies, detractors and everything in between. Koutsantonis has been labelled loyal, unwavering, trustworthy, resilient.
You also don’t have to dig too deep to find people who call him arrogant and difficult.
The anger from across the floor is often visceral. Much of it unprintable.
It’s fair to say he has put more than one opponent off-side with his constant and colourful use of the Twitter platform. He was back at it again in the weeks after the election in a fiery exchange with David Speirs, who labelled him “a scheming old has-been” like Scar in the Lion King, after he speculated Speirs, who would later be installed as Opposition leader, was attempting to force Chapman out of her seat (she would later announce her decision to quit just hours after Speirs was installed as leader).
Koutsantonis doesn’t shy away from enjoying the theatre of politics and accepts he is a polarising figure.
And while it’s not surprising he has friends speak in glowing terms about his political nous, work ethic, loyalty, authenticity and killer instinct, it is little illuminating, perhaps, on just who some of those mates happen to be.
“Yes, Tom and I are friends,” says Christopher Pyne, former defence minister and Liberal Party powerbroker.
“Both our wives had somewhat complicated first births and we became quite friendly during that period.”
(Koutsantonis’s daughter Tia, now 11, was born premature at 26 weeks, and was being treated by a medical device donated by the Pyne family. Texts started and a friendship ensued).
Also in Koutsantonis, Pyne sees something of himself.
“We were both political warriors and we both wanted what was best for SA,” Pyne says. “So we connected very closely on the defence work for the state.”
Pyne says Koutsantonis also has the innate ability to sniff out his opponent’s “soft spot” and maximise any fallout.
“Tom will find a weakness in the enemy’s makeup and exploit it,” Pyne says. “If he senses weakness, he is not likely to miss the opportunity. Every party needs a fighter who can take it to the opposition. I did that. Tom does that.
“It’s maybe not at the frontline like it used to be because everybody wants to think politics is nice and full of nice people.
“It isn’t.”
But Pyne says, despite their differences in politics and opinion, he could always trust Koutsantonis. “I could trust his handshake. When he told me he was going to do something he did it,” he says.
It is an attribute Pyne sees in new Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who in the lead-up to the election he described as “a mate, who like Tom, is prepared to fight for his cause”.
Former federal treasurer Josh Frydenberg is another with whom Koutsantonis shares a friendship; the two would often catch up if Koutsantonis was in Melbourne or Canberra, or Frydenberg in Adelaide.
“I enjoyed working with Tom when he was treasurer and energy minister but a little less so with his premier,” Frydenberg says. “Tom and I may have had our policy disagreements but there was always a mutual respect, a few laughs and, dare I say it, a touch of friendship.”
Of course, Koutsantonis has more than his share of detractors.
It is clear Chapman had him (and others) in her sights when taking the floor of the House in May after it was declared by the Ombudsman there was “no conflict of interest, no breach of the Ministerial Code of Conduct and no maladministration.”
“No one in this chamber will be surprised to hear that I consider the select committee of last year to have been nothing more than a witch hunt and that it had all the features of a kangaroo court,” Chapman said, tabling a submission from her legal counsel Frances Nelson QC calling for Koutsantonis to remove himself from the committee after making public statements against her.
Another senior Liberal is scathing in their assessment of Koutsantonis’s approach.
“Do people really see being an attack dog and targeting people as a virtue?,” they say.
“I’m not sure how you sleep at night if that’s your approach. If that’s politics, who wants to be in it?
“The treatment of Vickie Chapman was, in particular, disgraceful, especially for someone who has given so much to this state over such a long period of time.”
Another described the attacks on Wingard as “shameful” and said he was easily one of the Liberals’ best ministers.
Several political reporters past and present also have been bruised by their encounters with Koutsantonis.
Most agree he can switch depending on the environment or the reception he receives, from beguiling, to friendly, to charming, to assertive and aggressive, sometimes witty, other times deadly serious … all within seconds. One thing is universally accepted: he plays it hard.
Interestingly, most people who spoke to SA Weekend enjoy his company.
“Tom can be a bully. He can also be charming, almost seducing you to do a story,” one says.
“Ultimately he’s a political operator, and one of the most important things you can do is sell a story and Tom is the ultimate salesman.
“Is it a good or a bad thing? I don’t really know. But it’s effective.
“It’s hard not to like him, though.”
Another said they would tire of Koutsantonis reaching out with “the greatest scandal of the year … three times a week”.
“It made it difficult to tell good yarns from bad,” they say. “Often they were half-baked and we were left to join the dots and, when you did, there was nothing there. And you’d just lost a day.”
Another sayssimply: “Yeah, he could be exhausting, but I love him. Three years ago he told me, ‘We’ll win because my bloke is better than their bloke’. He was right.”
And another: “The bullying stuff is overblown. He’s robust but I never found him a bully. And if he did, it was always done with a smile.”
Koutsantonis has heard the bully and arrogant tags – there’s not much he hasn’t heard or been called – but says people misread his intentions and confuse the theatre with reality.
He also gets as good as he gives, referencing racial put-downs from opponents and TikTok videos mocking him dancing with his children.
“I think it’s a caricature. I hope to think I’ve never been arrogant,” he says.
“I can be made to look arrogant because my enemies might say that, but I think they confuse that with conviction. I go to church every week and humility is a big part of my faith.”
More on that later.
He continues: “ … I think they’re attacking a concept of me that they’re trying to manufacture to the public, to disguise X, Y and Z. I know it’s not me.”
Pyne takes pride in the fact he and Koutsantonis can vehemently disagree on politics and policies, but still like each other; it’s an example of tolerance and mutual respect often missing from modern political discourse, and Twitter.
“The captain of the Crows and Power would respect each other but still want to destroy the other when the Showdown is on. Tom and I are no different,” Pyne says.
It’s a point Koutsantonis has obviously thought about a lot and he becomes animated when discussing it. “We might use the word enemies, but these people aren’t enemies in the real sense,” he says.
He goes on to reference former premier Steven Marshall.
“You know, Marshall didn’t want the state to fail,” he says. “This constant concept that the opposition wants the government to fail and therefore the state to fail simply isn’t true.
“If we keep on going down this path like the US, where they’re openly accusing each other of treachery to the country, we all lose.”
He cites members of the frontbench as some of his closest political friends – Susan Close, Chris Picton, Stephen Mullighan, Nick Champion – but values his connections with the likes of Pyne and Frydenberg. “Yeah, I mean, Chris Pyne is great company. He’s just so funny. He’s got a lovely wife and a lovely family, and Josh, you look at his connections with his community, his family – everything he does, comes from the right place,” he says.
RISE, FALL, RISE
Koutsantonis’s path to the top is well documented. The Adelaide cabbie from hardworking Greek migrant parents, Antonis and Dimitra, who made his name early with a crash or crash-through approach.
He first came to parliament standing for Peake (now West Torrens) and was elected at the 1997 election when Labor regained much of the ground it had lost four years earlier. He was only 26. The first five years were in Opposition. Then, when Mike Rann defeated Rob Kerin in 2002, he was left on the backbench. And there he would stay until March 2009 when he finally made it into cabinet.
His first big headlines came the same year when the Sunday Mail broke the story that he had collected 60 traffic infringement notices and had lost his licence, earning him the nickname “Turbo Tom”. He was road safety minister at the time so, suffice to say, it wasn’t a great look, although he was adamant not all the fines were actually incurred by him.
Still he ploughed on, becoming treasurer in the Weatherill government after the unexpected 2014 election win over the Steven Marshall-led Liberal party.
He went on to forge strong relationships with big business, driving controversial energy reforms alongside Weatherill (or overseeing disastrous management of the energy system if you listen to the Liberals) and surviving a run-in with ICAC over a land deal in which he was cleared of misconduct but rapped over the knuckles for use of bad language.
He also repeatedly broke from tradition, supported plans for exploratory drilling in the Great Australian Bight, while keeping the door ajar on the likes of fracking and nuclear energy.
“The horse has bolted on most of those now,” he says, with a laugh.
He has stood apart from the pack for his social conservatism on key issue of conscience – as recently as last year Koutsantonis was one of three MPs to vote against a euthanasia Bill.
None of this appears to come straight from the Labor playbook and it has often confused and inflamed his political opponents.
“What the Liberal Party are really upset about is fundamentally they think I should be one of them,” he says.
“They think that I’m either a conservative or whatever comes into their heads, but I’m not, I’m Labor through and through.”
Now he’s back as the longest-serving MP in state parliament following the retirement of former treasurer Rob Lucas.
As recently installed Infrastructure and Transport Minister and Energy and Mining Minister – and re-elected West Torrens MP with a 4.5 per cent swing – he says he is wiser and more even-handed for the experience.
But after 25 years, what keeps him going?
“My kids, the state’s kids,” he says simply.
“Government isn’t a business, it’s the glue that holds everything together. And you need people who know it, will understand how it moves to make sure you can guide it in the right way. And what motivates me is little stories I hear in my own electorate; people who want to see their kids stay here. That’s universal, Labor and Liberal.
“I went out to a high school in the suburbs when I was treasurer, the last crop for the graduation ceremony in 2017, before the election.
“They were celebrating the kids graduating, but only one was going to university. Now, I’m not a big believer in everyone has to go to university, but I thought that was telling.
“I thought after 16 years of Labor, I think: ‘One kid is going to university in one of the most disadvantaged areas in South Australia’. So we need to do more. Something is going wrong, which means we need to do more.”
Family and faith are the two other key driving forces. A father to two girls, Tia and Helena, and husband to Anthea, he says he is a hands-on dad, and loves to cook. Every Sunday, he and his family go to church.
“My family is everything, my faith is very important,” he says. “My girls are really sort of loving and caring and that sort of softens the world. They’re different, but they’re just, what do I say, they’re just great. They’re everything.
“Anthea has been through everything with me and I simply couldn’t have done any of this without her.”
ON THE HORIZON
It is put to him that Labor lost the last election because they were bloated, arrogant, out of touch, had a toxic relationship with business and had failed to create a meaningful narrative out of the Oakden debacle. The statewide blackout also didn’t help. Koutsantonis doesn’t flinch.
“I think we learned a lot,” he says.
Like what?
“Don’t be captured by any special interests. Keep an open mind. You know, you’re not always right,” he says. “Don’t lose connection with the people who elect you. Keep business close, but not too close.
“The first thing since I’ve been elected is I’ve started the whole district quarter meetings again. The cynicism level drops and you start getting the real answers. You start getting real perspective.
“You know, stuff like how parents feel about sending their kids to a school that has about 1500 kids. What traffic does to the amenity in a suburb. What job insecurity does to families.
“Those meetings are real and there’s no one at these meetings who calls you minister or agrees with everything you say. And that’s what I like about it. It’s truth. It’s confronting.
“And that’s how you become a better minister and a better government. You stay connected with those people. You don’t let the trappings of the office take you over.”
Now he has a few things at the top of his to-do list. One of these is tearing up the $2.14bn contract with Keolis Downer to run Adelaide’s train network.
“Yep. It’s going to happen,” he says (the recent state budget allocated $1m for an inquiry to determine the best way to end the contract).
He wants to be a key player in Labor delivering “the world’s first hydrogen plant” and in the wake of the national power crisis has, in recent days, announced plans for news laws to ensure greater market and pipeline transparency. He’s also pushed back the rollout of the $9.9bn North-South Corridor project by 12 months to 2031.
“But the most important thing I want to do is to make sure that Peter gets the opportunity to govern the way he wants to govern,” Koutsantonis says.
“It’s using all my experience to make sure the parliament operates smoothly and that he can fulfil his mandate, and get the state to the position where he wants to get it.
“If I can do that, I’ll be satisfied.”
So will his role as the Opposition’s attack dog, as “Mali’s Lion” continue?
Recent encounters suggest the answer is an emphatic “Yes”.
“Well I’ve got a whole new bunch of attack dogs to train now,” he says, laughing.
The conversation over, Koutsantonis and Schumann enjoy another laugh and then he bounces back into Waymouth St.
Koutsantonis is clearly no longer bored. And that spell in opposition?
It sounds like it’s exactly what he needed.
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