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. Early life Gartrell was born in 1970 in Orange, New South Wales. He was raised by his parents, David and Carolyn Gartrell, on an orchard. His parents fostered a number of children in addition to Tim as well as his brother Brett and sister Katrina. Gartrell notes the impact of living with foster children as a teenager as significant on his politics. In 1987, Gartrell and his school's team won the state debating championships. After finishing school, he moved to Sydney to study in 1989. Career 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. Gartrell then worked as an adviser for Keating government ministers, Frank Walker and Jeannette McHugh. He then worked in the Beazley Federal Opposition for Anthony Albanese. Following this work, he worked as the assistant to the mayor of the South Sydney Council. 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