Tim James (Australian politician)

Timothy Charles James is an Australian politician. He was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly at the 2022 Willoughby state by-election.[1]

Born and raised in the northern Sydney suburb of Artarmon, James joined the Liberal Party in 1993. From 1996, he worked in the offices of Joe Hockey and the then Prime Minister, John Howard in conjunction with completing his law and economic studies at the University of Technology Sydney.

Admitted as a solicitor to the Supreme Court of NSW in 2002, James worked as a commercial lawyer for Allens Arthur Robinson and then as a legal adviser to Pfizer Australia.

This was followed by a career in business, working for Pfizer Australia, KPMG and also Johnson & Johnson. As well as undertaking secondments in New York and London, James completed a Master of Business Administration from the Australian Graduate School of Management.

Returning to politics, James worked as the Chief of Staff to Anthony Roberts who served as the NSW Minister for Fair Trading from 2011-2013 and then as Minister for Industry, Resources and Energy, and Special Minister of State.

From 2014-2015, James served as the Chief Executive Officer of Medicines Australia, after which time, he founded his own consultancy businesses and served on the Board of the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust.

From 2019-2022, James served as the Executive General Manager of the Menzies Research Centre, the think tank of the Liberal Party of Australia.

A member of the Right faction, he unsuccessfully contested Liberal preselection for the 2017 North Shore by-election, losing to moderate Felicity Wilson.[2] In 2022 he was preselected to run for the Liberal Party in the 2022 Willoughby state by-election, unexpectedly defeating Gail Giles-Gidney.[3] He held the seat on 12 February 2022 despite a large swing to independent candidate Larissa Penn.[2]

James has also served on the National Board of Life Education Australia.