Konstantine “Kon” Vatskalis (born 4 April 1957) is an Australian politician. He has been an Australian Labor Party member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly since September 2001, representing the Darwin-based electorate of Casuarina. He is the current Minister for Business and Economic Development, Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Defence Support, Minister for Sport and Recreation and Minister for Essential Services.
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Vatskalis was born in Greece, and studied public sector management and health surveying in Athens. He became involved in student politics while there, becoming a student representative at the Athens Higher Vocational School and taking part in the 1970s pro-democracy protests, where he witnessed people being arrested for speaking freely. He married an Australian woman, Linda Cotton in 1982, and in 1983, they immigrated to Western Australia. Once they had arrived in Perth, Vatskalis found that his Greek degrees were not recognised, and was forced to start again, beginning a degree in environmental health at Curtin University, where he also joined the Australian Labor Party. After graduating in 1985, he worked as an environmental health officer and surveyor in the Western Australian towns of Port Hedland and Wanneroo from 1986 to 1993. This period was also marked by personal tragedy, however; his wife died in 1988.[citation needed] In 1992, not long before leaving Western Australia, Vatskalis completed another degree, this time in environmental science from Murdoch University.
In 1993, Vatskalis secured a job managing the Darwin Environmental Health Unit, which meant relocating to the Northern Territory. He quickly became involved in Darwin’s multicultural community, taking up a position hosting a Greek community radio show the same year, and going on to present a weekly nationwide Greek news segment on SBS TV. Vatskalis also served a stint on the Northern Territory Police’s Ethnic Advisory Committee.
Election to parliament
Vatskalis left the Environmental Health Unit in 2000, taking up a position at Danila Dilba, the indigenous health service in Darwin. However, this was to be short-lived, as he soon nominated for Australian Labor Party pre-selection to contest the seat of Casuarina at the 2001 election. Vatskalis was successful in gaining preselection, but was not widely expected to be elected, as the ALP had never won Casuarina, and he was facing incumbent MP and Arts, Sciences and Ethnic Affairs Minister Peter Adamson. However, in an unexpected result, the ALP swept through suburban Darwin, picking up a number of seats – among them Casuarina, for the first time ever. While Adamson struggled to explain the surprise backlash, it was widely suggested that the CLP’s controversial decision to preference One Nation over the ALP had played a large part in the result in his heavily multicultural electorate.
