[1] Service in the RAAF in the early 1950s, combined with the Suez Crisis and the Split in the Labor movement, radicalised Hartley and he joined the ALP in 1956.
After this, he combined his journalism with his new politics, becoming co-editor of the ALP's WA newspaper, the Western Sun.
[1] Hartley lost his position as State Secretary when formal intervention in the Victorian branch by the Federal ALP Executive led to the replacement of the Victorian Central Executive of the Party in October 1970.
He remained a leading figure within the Victorian ALP's Socialist Left faction until his expulsion in 1986.
He gained later public attention following his involvement with Gough Whitlam and David Combe in attempts to raise large sums of money for the Labor Party from the Iraqi Ba'ath Party (later led by Saddam Hussein) in 1975,[2] and for his outspoken views on a variety of issues, particularly the Middle East conflict.