Arthur Gietzelt

Arthur Thomas Gietzelt AO (28 December 1920 – 5 January 2014) was an Australian politician. He was a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and served as a Senator for New South Wales from 1971 to 1989. He was Minister for Veterans' Affairs in the Hawke government from 1983 to 1987.

Early life Gietzelt was born in San Francisco on 28 December 1920. He was the first of three children born to Ida Caroline (née Stoward) and Arthur Anton Gietzelt, including his younger brother Ray. His Australian parents had travelled to the United States for his father's business interests in the automotive industry.

Gietzelt and his parents returned to Sydney in August 1922. He attended state schools at Newtown, Enfield and Sans Souci, completing his secondary education at Hurstville Boys' High School. Gietzelt's father held a distributorship for an American manufacturer of solid rubber tyres and ran a tyre business in Newtown from 1923 to 1929. The business failed during the Great Depression, but his father subsequently established a successful manufacturing business, Getz Products, producing paint chemicals, shoe polish and dyes at premises in Sans Souci and Rockdale. He was attached to the Royal Australian Engineers where he "produced an army newspaper and enjoyed the experience of keeping his fellow-soldiers informed about world events".

Factional leadership Gietzelt and his brother Ray, the long-serving general secretary of the Federated Miscellaneous Workers' Union, were powerful figures in the left-wing faction of the ALP in New South Wales.

Federal politics Gietzelt was elected to a six-year Senate term at the 1970 election, commencing on 1 July 1971. He was re-elected to further terms at the 1974, 1975, 1977, 1983 and 1987 elections, on three occasions having his term cut short by double dissolutions. He resigned from the Senate on 27 February 1989, having delayed his retirement in order to ensure his preferred successor, John Faulkner, would be nominated to the casual vacancy.

Personal life In 1949, Gietzelt married Dawn Haslam, with whom he had three children.

Gietzelt was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1992 for "service to the Australian Parliament and to local government".

Gietzelt died on 5 January 2014, aged 93.