Tim Gartrell

Tim Gartrell (born 1970 in Orange, New South Wales) is a former Secretary of the Australian Labor Party, and since has been involved in advocacy for other, mainly indigenous-rights focused causes.

Career

Gartrell started his career as an advocate and researcher in the Australian union movement, while studying politics part-time at the University of NSW.^[1]

Gartrell then worked as an adviser for two Keating government ministers and the Beazley Federal Opposition. He joined the staff of the ALP National Secretariat in 1998 serving as Assistant National Secretary of the ALP from April 2000. He was elected unopposed as National Secretary on 2 September 2003.^[2]

Gartrell announced his resignation from the position on 30 September 2008 to become CEO of market research firm Auspoll ^[3] which is part of the larger Photon group of media companies. He left that post in 2010 to become CEO of Indigenous employment advocacy charity GenerationOne. In 2012, Gartrell was recruited by Reconciliation Australia to lead the Recognise campaign team.^[4]

Achievements

Gartrell is recognised as one of the driving forces behind Labor’s successful 2007 election campaign, which saw the Party return to power after more than 11 years in Opposition.^[5] Through a creative use of new campaign techniques and advertising, Labor’s campaign was seen to be superior to the Liberal Party campaign and won a series of media awards.^[6] As a key member of Labor’s Political Strategy Group, Gartrell worked closely with Kevin Rudd from his ascension to the Labor leadership, through to Rudd's election as Prime Minister.

Gartrell’s career followed the fortunes of the ALP, with his term as National Secretary beginning on the eve of the 2004 election campaign which saw the Party beaten under then leader Mark Latham.^[7] Gartrell then pursued reform of the campaigning structures of the Party, enabling Labor to effectively campaign under the “New Leadership” slogan with Kevin Rudd. Gartrell recognised this in his resignation media release stating:

“I’m particularly grateful for the support I received from the National Executive after the 2004 federal election defeat and the privilege of being the ALP Campaign Director for the 2007 Federal Election.”^[8]

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd described Gartrell’s leadership skills as “superb” and stated “[h]is ability, hard work, judgment and campaign leadership skills are first class”.

Gartrell holds a Bachelor of Arts (political science) and a master's degree in communications studies. He is a member of the Advisory Council of the University of New South Wales Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.

References