Tim Gartrell
Tim Gartrell (born 1970) is an Australian political advisor currently serving as the Chief of Staff to the Prime Minister of Australia under Anthony Albanese. He previously served as the National Secretary of the Australian Labor Party between 2003 and 2008, overseeing Labor's federal election campaigns in 2004 and 2007. Gartrell was also the Campaign Director for the 'Yes' camapaign in favour of marriage equality at the 2017 Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey
Partner of Kerry Sanderson.
Academia
Tim Gartrell holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of New South Wales. He also holds a master's degree in communications studies from the University of South Australia.
He is a member of the Advisory Council of the University of New South Wales Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.
Early politics
City life beckoned Tim Gartrell in 1989, and political activism was inevitable as he completed a bachelor of arts at the University of NSW.
"I liked Billy Bragg and Midnight Oil," he admits sheepishly. "I don't talk about it much with Peter [Garrett], but I was a fan."
Work for the Australian Services Union and the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union followed. He then worked for the federal Labor ministers Frank Walker and Jeannette McHugh, then Anthony Albanese, before a stint at South Sydney council as assistant to the mayor, Vic Smith.
Gartrell moved back to federal politics in 1998 when he was asked by the former national secretary Gary Gray to work on Labor's election campaign. He stayed on as an organiser under Gray until becoming assistant national secretary to Geoff Walsh who, as part of his blooding, sent him off to a business course. In 2003 he succeeded Walsh.
"I sent him because managing people is one of the skills he needed for the job," Walsh recalled yesterday. "There are two aspects to be successful and Tim has them both. You have to have a commitment to the objectives of the job but also the capacity to retain a sense of balance and decency in the way you deal with various parts of organisation. It's like being the leader but in a party sense."
Mark Arbib, the former NSW party secretary and senator-elect, was the other half of the campaign team. He says Gartrell's strength is his calm demeanour and ability to bring previously warring elements together in a cohesive unit: "He doesn't get angry but he is prepared to be hard when he has to make a call. The party had to work together to win this election."[1]
Rising in the Party
Gartrell started his career as an advocate and researcher in the Australian union movement, while studying a Bachelor of Arts part-time at the University of NSW.
He joined the staff of the Australian Labor Party National Secretariat in 1998 serving as Assistant National Secretary of the Australian Labor Party from April 2000. He was elected unopposed as National Secretary on 2 September 2003.
Following the ALP's defeat at the 2004 election, Gartrell pursued reform of the campaigning structures of the Party.
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. 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. 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. 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 announced his resignation from the position on 30 September 2008 to become CEO of market research firm Auspoll 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, as campaign manager. The Recognise campaign advocated for constitutional recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Tanya Hosch was joint campaign director, and also the public face of the campaign.
Shortly after the announcement of the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey, Gartrell was appointed Campaign Director by the 'yes' side in favour of marriage equality. He led the campaign to a resounding success, with 61.6% of Australians voting in favour of marriage equality, representing a higher vote than any two-party preferred electoral vote in Australian history. He served as Vice-President of NSW Labor in 2019.
Gartrell was appointed as the Chief of Staff to Leader of the Opposition Anthony Albanese in June 2019. Following the 2022 federal election, he became the Prime Minister's Chief of Staff.[2]
SEARCH Foundation
The 2017 SEARCH AGM was be held on 26 November 2017 via national video and teleconference.
AGM Guest speakers
- Tim Gartrell, National Director of the Yes Campaign
- Helen Hewett, former CEO of the CBUS
This week, Australia voted overwhelmingly for marriage equality. I am very pleased to announce that our guest speaker for this year’s AGM will be Tim Gartrell, the National Director of the Yes Campaign on the topic: ‘Inside the Yes Campaign: Political lessons’. We have also invited Helen Hewett to speak on ethical investing. Further details on both speakers can be found below.
Yours in Unity
Company Secretary
- Tim Gartrell is an experienced leader of organisations, national campaign director, public affairs professional and a proud member of the SEARCH Foundation. Most recently, Tim helped lead the YES Campaign to victory as director of the Equality Campaign. Tim’s commitment to creating a more equal Australia is wide-ranging, having also spent five years as the national co-Director of Recognise and leading 17,000+ supporters in the push to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the Australian constitution and deal with the discrimination in it. Tim will be speaking on lessons learned for progressive political organising in Australia from the YES Campaign, one of the nation’s largest and most successful campaigns for the creation of a better and fairer Australia.[3]
SEARCH AGM
Adam Bandt and Tim Gartrell addressed the SEARCH Foundation's November 30, 2014 AGM.
Keynote addresses
Adam Bandt, Member for Melbourne and Deputy Leader of the Greens Melbourne.
- Mr Bandt introduced himself outlining his life in politics to date. He then reflected on the performance of the Abbott Government in its first year and outlined the challenges and opportunities for the Australian left over the next year. He also commented on the critical issues which led to the loss in the Victorian election of the Napthine Government the day before.
- Several members asked questions on taxation reform and the relationship between the Greens and the Labor Party.
Tim Gartrell, Campaign Co-Director, Recognise
- Tim Gartrell thanked SEARCH for the support which the Foundation had provided to the Recognise Campaign since its inception. How outlined the history of the campaign and commented on the support being generated for changes in the Constitution recognising Aboriginal and Torres Straits Islander peoples. He indicated that there was a challenge of mounting opposition to the Campaign from conservative political quarters and encouraged SEARCH to play its part in encouraging futher support for the Campaign leading up to the proposed referendum.
- Several members asked questions on the level of support within indigenous communities for the Campaign, and its relationship to the proscriptions of the Racial Discrimination Act.
To the acclamation of members, the Chair thanked the speakers for addressing the SEARCH AGM both the for the quality and candour of the presentations and giving up part of their Sunday to speak to the Meeting.
ATTENDANCE LIST SEARCH AGM 2017
Invited guests Mark Godlewski and Scott Marsh of Pitcher Partners; Seng La of Refuge Accounting.
- Adelaide: Ashley Campbell, Glen Giles, Gwyneth Regione, Roger Keyes, David Faber, Kay Anastassiadis, Adrian Shackley, Don Jarrett.
- Brisbane: Patricia Hovey, Jan Ryall, Clare Rudkin
- Melbourne Judith Klepner, Julius Roe, Peter Gibbons, Louise Connor, Penny Sara, Greg Strickland, Michael Evans.
- Newcastle Greg Giles, Vera Deacon, Malcolm Bailey, John Witte, Judy Morley and Bev Symons.
- Sydney Luke Whitington, Victoria Brookman, David McKnight, Casey Thompson, Declan O'Byrne, Audrey McDonald, Tom McDonald, Daren McDonald, Paul Norton, Barry Power, Peter Murphy, Pat Ranald, Sam Altman, Gillian Workman, Mark Stevens, Carmen Blanco, Kathy Gollan, Richard Walsham, Tony Hawkins, Pam Hawkins, Dylan Griffiths, Leila Barreto, Cat Kutay, Ama Somaratna, Don Sutherland, Matt Kunkel, Adrian Graves, Mick Tubbs, John Poulos, Patrick Wright, Mark Stevens, Ron Marriott, Nivek Thompson, Margaret Kirkby, Adam Farrar, Jane Durie, Helen Hewett, Rex Hewett, Tim Gartrell, Brian Aarons, Amalina Wallace.
SEARCH Foundation new members
In May 2013, the following people joined the SEARCH Foundation: Peter Hay, Sue Gillett, Tim Gartrell, Carmen Green, Ian Tuit, Diana Beaumont.[4]
Fabian event
Forthcoming Fabian Society Seminars (2005).
April: Could Chifley Win A Labor Preselection Today? - Getting Better Labor
Candidates
With: John Button (Former Federal Minister), Tim Gartrell (ALP National Secretary), & Rodney Cavalier (Former State Minister)
When: Wednesday 20 April from 6.00pm to 7.30pm
Where: Gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Road[5]