Career
He was Chief Librarian of the Labour Party from 1987 to 1992.
1997-1998: Special Adviser to the Secretary of State for Social Security, Harriet Harman
2000-2001, he was a special adviser as Head of Policy to the First Minister Henry McLeish of the Scottish Executive.
He was a columnist and editorial writer for the Scotland on Sunday newspaper from 2002 to 2004.
Also worked for three months as a policy consultant to James Boyle at the Scottish Arts Council in 2002.
From 2004-2005 he was a special adviser in Tony Blair's Prime Minister's Office No. 10 Policy Unit responsible for housing and regeneration policy.
He was Political Secretary/Director of Political Operations at 10 Downing Street for Tony Blair from 2005–2007, where he provided political management and support for the development of the government's political strategy.
In 2007 McTernan was seconded to the Scottish Labour Party to run its campaign for the May Scottish Parliament general election. The Scottish Labour Party lost power.
In 2007 he worked on the November 2007 Australian Labor Party general election campaign.
2007–2008, Special Adviser to Des Browne, Secretary of State for Scotland
He was special adviser to Jim Murphy MP, the Secretary of State for Scotland from 2008 until May 2010.
In September 2011, he was appointed as communications director to Australian Prime Minister, Julia Gillard.
In November 2011, the now former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Peter Slipper, was installed by the Gillard minority Government. It is believed that McTernan was instrumental in helping to achieve this. At the time it was considered 'a master stroke', 'a brilliant strategic move ' on behalf of the Prime Minister because it meant the Opposition would have one less vote in the chamber. Numbers were very tight in the House of Representatives, with Labor being dependent upon the single Australian Greens member and supportive independents to pass legislation and retain government.
McTernan has been referred to as 'Gillards' Brain'. As Chief Media Advisor/ Communications Director, reminiscent to Karl Rove, who as George Bush Junior's Chief strategist became known as 'Bush's brain'. McTernan, keen to repeat the success of his strategy in the U.K. is believed to be using similar tactics to coach the Australian PM and her ministers in media situations. He is believed to be the brain behind a central media narrative for Labor to frame the Opposition as 'negative'.
On 9 October 2012, in response to a motion by Tony Abbott to have Peter Slipper removed as Speaker of the House of Representatives over sexist comments made in private text messages, and in the context of the ongoing Alan Jones shame controversy, Ms Gillard publicly addressed for the first time the issue of sexism against her and raised allegations of misogyny and sexism against Opposition leader Tony Abbott. While the speech was criticized by mainstream Australian media political correspondents it received widespread positive attention from social media and international news coverage being described as a "masterful, righteous take-down" and "badass". John McTernan's is alleged to have been the mastermind behind Julia Gillard's parliamentary speech, which has been seen by some media analysts as part of a broader political strategy by Labor in the lead up to the 2013 Australian federal election.
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