Karl Bitar is a former National Secretary of the Australian Labor Party

Australian Labor Party

The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...

, succeeding Tim Gartrell

Tim Gartrell

Tim Gartrell is the former National Secretary of the Australian Labor Party.Born and raised in Orange in Central Western NSW, he worked as an advocate and researcher for the Australian Services Union and the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union while studying politics part-time at the...

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Bitar was previously General Secretary for the NSW branch December 2007 and October 2008, and Assistant General Secretary between 2004 and the end of 2007. He also served as an organiser between 1999 and 2004.

Bitar was the NSW Campaign Director for Labor at the 2007 federal election.

He is of Lebanese descent and is a Melkite

Melkite

The term Melkite, also written Melchite, refers to various Byzantine Rite Christian churches and their members originating in the Middle East. The word comes from the Syriac word malkāyā , and the Arabic word Malakī...

 Catholic

Catholic

The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...

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Bitar resigned as National Secretary on 16 March 2011.

On 25 March 2011, Crown Casino announced it had hired Bitar as a lobbyist.