George Newhouse

George Newhouse is an Australian human rights lawyer and a former local councillor. He is the principal solicitor of the National Justice Project, a human rights and social justice legal service, and currently an Adjunct Professor of Law at Macquarie University.^[1] and at the University of Technology Sydney.^[2]

George Newhouse
Mayor of Waverley
In office 21 September 2006 – 20 September 2007
Deputy	George Copeland
Preceded by	Mora Main
Succeeded by	Ingrid Strewe
Deputy Mayor of Waverley
In office 8 April 2004 – 21 September 2006
Mayor	Peter Moscatt Mora Main
Preceded by	Mora Main
Succeeded by	George Copeland
Councillor of Waverley Council for Hunter Ward
In office September 1995 – 13 September 2008
Personal details
Born	Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Political party	Australian Labor Party (NSW Branch)
Occupation	Human rights and social justice lawyer

He was the Mayor of Waverley in the eastern suburbs of Sydney from 2006 to 2007, and the Labor candidate for the seat of Wentworth at the 2007 Australian federal election.

Professional career

Newhouse attended Sydney Grammar School and then studied Law and Commerce at the University of New South Wales.^[3]

After leaving university, Newhouse joined JPMorgan in Sydney as a corporate finance executive and was later transferred to JPMorgan's New York office. From New York he moved to London where he worked for two years as a capital markets lawyer for Clifford Chance. In 1990 he returned to Sydney and continued working as a lawyer with Swaab & Associates. He became an accredited mediator and was a member of the Consumer Trader Tenancy Tribunal from 1999 to 2007 and a mediator for the Workers Compensation Commission from 2001 to 2010.^[4]

In addition to his expertise in social justice law, Newhouse specialises in defamation, privacy, negligence, property, finance and planning law. He is an adjunct professor at Macquarie University ^[5] where he teaches law, he is also an adjunct professor at the University of Technology Sydney at the Jumbunna Inst for Indigenous Education & Research^[6] and is also the chapter editor of Thomson Reuters The Laws of Australia: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders – Civil Justice Issues.

Newhouse co-founded the National Justice Project in 2016 with Dan Mori and Duncan Fine. As the principal solicitor of the Project his work involves using the law in ways that support and advance social justice and human rights in Australia. It does this by supporting those who are least able to access justice and whose cases can advance human rights within Australia and the Pacific region. In addition the National Justice Project has taken on a number of research, education, advocacy and reform projects such as the Aboriginal Health Project.^[7][8]

In August 2008 Newhouse was invited to participate in the prime minister, Kevin Rudd's Australia 2020 summit in the area of indigenous affairs.

Human rights representation

Newhouse is well known in Australia for his human rights work with refugees, former Immigration detainees and Aboriginal Australians. His extensive social justice work was acknowledged in 2017 when he was awarded the Ron Castan Humanitarian award^[9] and again in 2019 when he received the Australian Lawyers Alliance Civil Justice Award^[10]

Refugees

Newhouse represented Vivian Solon, who was deported from Australia to the Philippines; Cornelia Rau, who was detained in an Australian detention centre for ten months; the Sudanese Dafurian community, and the family of the late Richard Niyonsaba.^[11] Newhouse has also acted for Tamil, Chinese, Palestinian and Iranian asylum seekers following the Rau and Solon cases.

In June 2010 Newhouse represented Tamil asylum seekers in their complaint to the Australian Human Rights Commission regarding the suspension of the processing of their visas;^{[citation needed]} which have subsequently been processed.

In February 2011 Newhouse was successful in securing the release of Seena Akhlaqi Sheikhdost, an orphan whose parents had died in a shipwreck on Christmas Island from immigration detention.^[12][13][14] He also facilitated a family with two vulnerable children to be moved from Inverbrackie Detention Centre in Adelaide to community detention in Sydney.^[15] Newhouse has championed the use of the Commonwealth's common law duty of care to have children released from fenced detention.^[16]

In 2011 in the WA Coroner's Court, Newhouse represented the survivors and relatives of those who died in the 2010 Christmas Island boat disaster;^[17] and he represented the next of kin of one of the three suicides in Villawood before the NSW Coroner.^[18] He also obtained an injunction to stop the first Afghan asylum seeker to be forcibly returned to Afghanistan.^[19] In 2013 he acted for two vulnerable youths in immigration detention and had them released into the community.^{[citation needed]} In 2013 and 2014 together with Julian Burnside and Dan Mori he mounted a Constitutional Challenge to the detention of asylum seekers on Nauru.^[20] Newhouse fought for the rights of those indefinitely detained in immigration detention to be released or to have their adverse ASIO determinations reviewed.^[21]

Newhouse led a team of lawyers to challenge the Minister of Immigration's decision to refuse to bring a woman who had become pregnant as a result of a rape on Nauru to Australia for a safe and lawful termination.^[22] His success in the Plaintiff s99 Case^[23] affirmed that the Minister for Immigration had a duty of care to asylum seekers offshore as well as in Australia.

As a result of that action Newhouse was able to bring other women to Australia throughout 2017.^[24]

In February 2017 the National Justice Project, under the direction of Newhouse, was successful, in obtaining an injunction to stop the Minister for Immigration from implementing a blanket policy to remove the mobile phones of all detainees in Immigration Detention.^[25]

In December 2017 Newhouse and the National Justice Project team commenced legal proceedings for a 12-year-old girl (known by the pseudonym FRX17) on Nauru who required urgent medical treatment which was not available on Nauru^[26] that case was successful and they followed up that case with legal action for 46 other refugee children on Nauru. Those cases and the Nauru Government's decision to deport Medecins Sans Frontieres medical staff^[27] led to the #kidsoffnauru campaign^[28] and ultimately to legislation, known as the "Medevac bill" to ensure the medical evacuation of refugees in need of care.^[29] His work in this area has been documented in an academic article published in the Court of Conscience^[30]

First Nations Peoples

In 2006 Newhouse worked with the Mutitjulu Aboriginal Community to overturn the decision of the Howard Government to impose an Administrator over the Mutitjulu Community Aboriginal Corporation on the basis that the decision was ultra vires, or beyond the power of the decision maker.^[31] In January 2009 Newhouse advised Barbara Shaw and the Prescribed Areas Peoples Alliance on their complaint about the Commonwealth Government's Northern Territory Intervention Laws to the United Nations Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.^[32][33]

In August 2009 Newhouse, on behalf of Barbara Shaw and other town camp residents, gathered a team of lawyers led by Ron Merkel QC to stop the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Jenny Macklin from proceeding with her takeover of the Alice Springs Town Camps and entering into a 40-year lease with the town camp associations.^[34]

In January 2010 he took on "cyber racists" who published material vilifying Indigenous Australians and succeeded in having Google remove search results and links to two racially offensive web pages based outside of Australia.^[35] During 2010 Newhouse worked with the Aboriginal Communities in the Northern Territory to fight for a fair rent to be paid by the Commonwealth Government for leases which the Commonwealth had taken over Aboriginal land which were compulsorily acquired under the Northern Territory Intervention legislation.^[36] In May 2010 Newhouse assisted traditional owners of Muckaty Station (Warlmanpa) to commence legal action against the Northern Land Council and the Commonwealth to overturn the nomination of their land as the site of Australia's first radioactive waste storage facility.^[37][38]

In January 2011 Newhouse successfully represented the Hermannsburg Bulldogs, an Indigenous Australian rules football team from Hermannsburg, in the Northern Territory and had them reinstated into the Central Australian Football League competition after they were suspended from the competition without due process.^[39] In 2013 and 2014 Newhouse acted for several Aboriginal Australian women who had their children removed by child protection agencies.^{[citation needed]}

In 2014 Newhouse acted for the family of Andrea Pickett, an Aboriginal woman who was brutally murdered by her husband. The family took action against the Western Australian Police and the WA Department of Child Protection.^[40]

Newhouse has acted in many inquests for Aboriginal Australians who died in custody. In 2015-6 he acted for the Deaths in Custody Watch Committee of WA in the inquest into the death of Ms Dhu in police custody. He also acts for the family of David Dungay Jr who died in Long Bay Correctional Centre in December 2015. As of 2017^[update] he was assisting the family of the late Wayne Fella Morrison, who died in Yatala Prison in September 2016.^[41]

Newhouse has acted for Aboriginal Communities in WA and the Northern Territory, participated in many rallies and spoken at different events defending the rights of Indigenous Australians, refugees, ethnic minority groups and genocide survivors and denouncing all forms of racism and anti-Semitism and human rights abuse.^[42]

Other matters

Newhouse has represented gay activist Gary Burns in two of his homosexual vilification cases.^[43][44] Newhouse had an assault charge dismissed against a 64-year-old grandmother, Leentije (Eva) McDonald, who was searched by NSW Police outside a pub in Maroubra in unusual circumstances.^[45] Newhouse acted for the Emden Family in their efforts to have their claim, that the painting 'Lady with a fan', by Gerard ter Borch was stolen from their grandfather Max Emden by German army officials during World War II, recognised by the National Gallery of Victoria.^[46] In 2015 Newhouse won a defamation case against Newscorp blogger Andrew Bolt, who had alleged that Newhouse had fraudulently asserted that a number of Sri Lankan people attempting to reach Australia by boat were asylum seekers. Newscorp were ordered to remove the offending articles.^[47]

Political career

Local government

Newhouse served as a Labor councillor on Waverley Council from 1995 to 2008 (representing Hunter Ward, which covers North Bondi, Rose Bay, Dover Heights and parts of Vaucluse).^[48] He was active in the various local government committees, participating in the Finance, Ethics and Community Services Committees and chairing the Development Control Committee. He was a founding member of the Waverley-Woollahra Bondi Junction Joint Planning Committee, and chaired the Waverley Council Bondi Junction Committee^[49] during a period of major upgrade including the $600 million Westfield redevelopment and the upgrade of Oxford Street.^[50] Newhouse was elected to the executive of the NSW Local Government Association in 2004.^[51] Newhouse was elected Deputy Mayor of Waverley in 2004 and became Mayor in September 2006.^[48] As Mayor, he undertook "back-to-basics" reforms by upgrading Bondi Park, Campbell Parade and Hall Street, moving Waverley Council's Service Centre and Planning Counter to Bondi Junction, creating a "mobile Mayoral unit" to keep in touch with local residents, and emphasising the need to combat climate change at a local level, by committing Waverley Council to be carbon-neutral within five years and supporting other environmentally-friendly initiatives.^[52][53][54] Newhouse did not recontest the 2008 local government election.^[48]

Federal politics

Newhouse was endorsed in May 2007 as the Labor candidate for the federal electorate of Wentworth, held by the Liberal member, Malcolm Turnbull; at the time the Minister for Environment in the Howard Government. In order to contest the election, Newhouse resigned as Mayor of Waverley. Although Wentworth had never been won by Labor, there was speculation^[55] that after a redistribution it might be winnable.^[56] Newhouse backed Labor's support of the construction of the Bell Bay Pulp Mill in the Tamar Valley, Tasmania.^[57] Newhouse's decision led to criticism from the Australian Greens and other environmentalists. Two candidates, former Sydney Deputy Mayor Dixie Coulton and Danielle Ecuyer, nominated against Newhouse as anti-pulp mill candidates.

A few days before the election, Turnbull made claims that Newhouse's nomination as a candidate was invalid because Newhouse did not resign from his positions on the Consumer, Trader and Tenancy Tribunal and the Workers Compensation Commission before nominating.^[58] Newhouse and the Labor Party denied that he had not resigned before nominating and dismissed the allegations by pointing to section 1 (e) of Schedule 2 of the Consumer Trader and Tenancy Tribunal Act which automatically vacated his office as a member of the Tribunal when Newhouse nominated for election as a member of a House of Parliament of the Commonwealth.^[58] In the days before the election the Liberal Party increased its attacks on Newhouse by revealing that a Newhouse campaign worker, former National Union of Students President Rose Jackson, had allegedly espoused "anti-Zionist views" in an email during her tenure with the NUS. Jackson said she had "not understood the proper definition of Zionism" at the time she wrote the email and that she supported the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish homeland.^[59]

On polling day Newhouse was assaulted by a prominent journalist Caroline Overington at their local polling booth.^[60] The editor-in-chief of The Australian, Chris Mitchell, mediated the dispute between the two.^[61] and The Australian published an apology to Newhouse on 4 December 2007.^[62]

Newhouse increased Labor's primary vote at the 2007 election, taking Labor to within 3.85% of victory.^{[63][circular reference]}

Other community involvement

In 2004 Newhouse was appointed to the NSW Architects Registration Board to represent the views of local government; and he is a former board member of the Australian Women Chamber of Commerce & Industry. In 2008 Newhouse and Warren Mundine established the Australian Indigenous Chamber of Commerce to promote indigenous entrepreneurship.^[64] Newhouse was a director of the chamber to 2012. Newhouse is also a member of the Board of the Stolen Generations Testimony Foundation^[65] and was a Member of the Advisory Board of the Alex Buzo Company between 2007 and 2010.^[66] George also became a committee member of the Australian Climate Justice Program in November 2017.^[67] In August 2009 Newhouse assisted with the establishment of the Adrian Lam Foundation for youth in PNG through education and sport.^[68] Newhouse has been the company secretary for The McKell Institute, a progressive public policy institute dedicated to developing practical policy ideas and contributing to public debate, since its inception in 2011.^[69] In 2017 Newhouse became a committee member of the Climate Justice Programme.^[70]

References

1. "Adjunct Professor George Newhouse - Macquarie Law School". law.mq.edu.au.
2. "Adjunct Professor George Newhouse - University of Technology Sydney". uts.edu.au.
3. Newhouse, George (22 December 2019). "George Newhouse Biography".
4. "George Newhouse discusses Kids off Nauru on ABC News 24 | National Justice Project". 1 November 2018.
5. "Adjunct Professor George Newhouse Macquarie University".
6. "Adjunct Professor George Newhouse UTS Jumbunna Institute".
7. "Who we are | National Justice Project". 27 December 2017.
8. "@georgenewhouse" on Twitter
9. . Archived from the original on 18 October 2017.
10. "George Newhouse wins 2019 ALA Civil Justice Award - Australian Lawyers Alliance". www.lawyersalliance.com.au.
11. Glendinning, Lee (2 January 2006). "Refugee family to be given new caseworker". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2 July 2017.
12. Samandar, Lema (17 February 2011). "Lawyers take up case of boat orphan". The Sydney Morning Herald. AAP. Retrieved 2 July 2017.
13. "Lawyer to fight for orphaned asylum seeker". Special Broadcasting Service. AAP. 18 February 2011. Retrieved 2 July 2017.
14. Kelly, Joe (17 February 2011). "Fate of Christmas Island disaster orphan may be decided by court challenge". The Australian. Retrieved 2 July 2017.
15. Fewster, Sean (8 March 2011). "Inverbrackie's troubled children in court plea". Herald-Sun. Melbourne. Retrieved 2 July 2017.
16. Fewster, Sean (8 March 2011). "Inverbrackie's troubled children in court plea". The Advertiser. Adelaide. Retrieved 2 July 2017.
17. Cranston, Belinda (25 June 2011). "SIEV boat witnesses denied legal aid". The Sydney Morning Herald. AAP. Retrieved 2 July 2017.
18. . Fiji Times. Archived from the original on 13 September 2012.
19. Needham, Kirsty (18 November 2011). "Court stops forced deportation of asylum seeker". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2 July 2017.
20. "Australian lawyers launch constitutional challenge to detention of 10 asylum seekers on Nauru". ABC News. Australia. 7 February 2014. Retrieved 2 July 2017.
21. Whyte, Sarah (4 February 2014). "ASIO warned over blocking refugee access to lawyers". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2 July 2017.
22. "Federal court rules in case of refugee raped on Nauru". ABC Radio National. 6 May 2016.
23. "BarNet Jade - Find recent Australian legal decisions, judgments, case summaries for legal professionals (Judgments And Decisions Enhanced)". jade.io.
24. "Pregnant asylum seeker on Nauru flown to Australia". www.abc.net.au. 3 February 2017.
25. "Legal battle to stop 'cruel' mobile phone ban in detention centres". SBS News.
26. "FRX17 as litigation representative for FRM17 v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection [2018] FCA 63 - BarNet Jade". jade.io.
27. "'Beyond desperate': MSF confirms mental health team told to leave Nauru". www.abc.net.au. 10 October 2018.
28. "#KidsOffNauru". #KidsOffNauru.
29. Murphy, Katherine; Karp, Paul (13 February 2019). "Scott Morrison suffers historic defeat as Labor and crossbench pass medevac bill". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
30. http://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/UNSWLawSocCConsc/2019/13.pdf^{[bare URL PDF]}
31. Giuseppe v Registrar of Aboriginal Corporations [2007] FCAFC 91, Federal Court (Full Court) (Australia)
32. "NT intervention: Aboriginal Australians take their case to the UN". Crikey. 27 October 2008. Retrieved 2 July 2017.
33. Macey, Jennifer (20 January 2009). "Welfare payment glitch prompts calls to end income management" (transcript). A.M. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 2 July 2017.
34. Berkovic, Nicola (7 August 2009). "Macklin stymied on camps". The Australian. Retrieved 2 July 2017.
35. "Google agrees to take down racist site". The Sydney Morning Herald. AAP. 15 January 2010. Retrieved 2 July 2017.
36. Schleibs, Mark (25 June 2011). "Community money remains frozen". The Australian. Retrieved 2 July 2017.
37. "Legal eagles weigh in on Muckaty dispute". Tennant & District Times. 9 April 2010. Archived from the original on 15 July 2012. Retrieved 2 July 2017.
38. Kerin, Lindy (6 April 2010). "Potential legal action over nuclear dump" (transcript). P.M. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 2 July 2017.
39. Webster, Jess (8 February 2011). "Bulldogs bite back on season suspension" (PDF). NT News. Darwin. p. 6. Retrieved 2 July 2017.
40. "Family sues state for murder negligence". The Australian.
41. "Family says Wayne Morrison was 'unrecognisable' after death in custody in South Australia". NITV. 25 May 2017.
42. "George Newhouse: The UN must act to help indigenous Australians". the Guardian. 10 November 2008.
43. Taylor, Christian (27 May 2009). "Burns Takes On Channel Nine". Same Same. Sydney. Archived from the original on 8 September 2012. Retrieved 2 July 2017.
44. Smee, Ben (7 March 2011). "Cabbie feels the heat over gay remarks". The Newcastle Herald. Retrieved 2 July 2017.
45. . The Sydney Morning Herald. 19 December 2007. Archived from the original on 22 December 2007.
46. Mangan, John (8 July 2007). "Nazi loot claim fuels demand for art's return". The Age. Melbourne. Retrieved 2 July 2017.
47. Newhouse v News Limited (No 2) [2015] NSWSC 567 (30 November 2007), Supreme Court (NSW, Australia).
48. "Councillors of Waverley" (PDF).
49. "Sydney, Wentworth warm up for election — REDWatch - Redfern Eveleigh Darlington Waterloo Watch Group". www.redwatch.org.au.
50. "Pitt Street mega-mall lives on burrowed time". The Sydney Morning Herald. 28 February 2005.
51. "War waged on stray shopping trolleys". The Sydney Morning Herald. 26 October 2005.
52. "Sydney beaches under threat: mayor". The Sydney Morning Herald. 16 September 2007.
53. "Sea rise set to drown kids' pool". The Sydney Morning Herald. 17 September 2007.
54. "Bondi's line in the sand".
55. Turnbull, Malcolm (20 April 2020). A Bigger Picture. p. 140.
56. Turnbull, Malcolm (20 April 2020). A Bigger Picture. p. 141.
57. "Pulp mill won't hurt election bid, Newhouse says". ABC News. Australia. 11 October 2007. Retrieved 18 November 2007.
58. "Newhouse says he's eligible for election". The Sydney Morning Herald. 21 November 2007.
59. "Newhouse staffer in anti-Zionist row". www.abc.net.au. 20 November 2007.
60. . The Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Media. 24 November 2007. Archived from the original on 27 September 2011. Retrieved 24 November 2007.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
61. . Brisbane Times. 4 December 2007. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016.
62. Simons, Margaret (4 December 2007). . Crikey. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016.
63. Electoral results for the Division of Wentworth
64. "Newhouse behind Indigenous Initiative". J-Wire. 29 July 2010. Retrieved 2 July 2017.
65. . Stolen Generations Testimony Foundation. Archived from the original on 13 July 2017. Retrieved 2 July 2017.
66. "Advisory Board: 2007-2010". Alex Buzo Company. Retrieved 2 July 2017.
67. "Climate Justice Program". Climate Justice Program. Climate Justice Program. Retrieved 29 November 2017.
68. . Archived from the original on 26 July 2019.
69. "Our people". The McKell Institute. 2017. Retrieved 2 July 2017.
70. Programme, Climate Justice. "We use the law to fight for climate justice". Climate Justice Programme.

Civic offices
Preceded by Mora Main	Deputy Mayor of Waverley 2004–2006	Succeeded by George Copeland
Preceded by Mora Main	Mayor of Waverley 2006–2007	Succeeded by Ingrid Strewe