Joe Szakacs

Joseph Karl Szakacs is an Australian politician and trade unionist. He is a Labor Party member of the South Australian Legislative Assembly, representing the electoral district of Cheltenham since the 2019 Cheltenham by-election.
Szakacs has served as the Minister for Police, Emergency Services and Correctional Services in the Malinauskas ministry since March 2022.

Early life and education

Joseph Karl Szakacs was born in Adelaide to a Hungarian father and Australian mother. He attended St Michael's College, Adelaide. In his teens, Szakacs was a competitive swimmer, holding the state 50m freestyle title and representing Australia at the 2002–03 FINA Swimming World Cup. He won swimming scholarships to the South Australian Institute of Sport and the University of Missouri, then returned to Australia to study law at Flinders University.

Introduced to the trade union movement by his father, a waterside worker in Port Adelaide, Szakacs worked as a volunteer lawyer at the Young Workers Legal Service, then as an industrial officer with the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union and later the United Firefighters Union South Australia. In October 2013, he was elected as state secretary of SA Unions.

Szakacs was elected to the South Australian House of Assembly in the by-election for the seat of Cheltenham on 9 February 2019, replacing former premier Jay Weatherill.
After Labor won the 2022 state election, Szakacs was appointed as the Minister for Police, Emergency Services and Correctional Services in the Malinauskas ministry.
In a Cabinet reshuffle on 19 September 2025, Szakacs retained his roles as Minister for Trade and Investment; Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science; Minister for Local Government; and Minister for Veterans Affairs.