George Newhouse
Encyclopedia
George Newhouse is an Australian human rights lawyer, a former local councillor and political activist. He was Mayor of Waverley
in the eastern suburbs of Sydney
from 2006 to 2007, and the Australian Labor Party
candidate for the seat of Wentworth
at the 2007 Australian federal election. Newhouse is a practicing solicitor and heads up Shine Lawyers Social Justice Practice.
and then studied Law and Commerce at the University of New South Wales
.
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.
Newhouse is the Corporate Counsel for Surry Partners Lawyers where he specialises in Defamation, Negligence, Property, Finance and Planning Law. Newhouse is also Special Counsel at Shine Lawyers where he heads up their Social Justice Practice. He is also the chapter editor of Thompson Reuters "The Laws of Australia: Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders - Civil Justice Issues".
In August 2008 Newhouse was invited to participate in the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd's Australia 2020 summit in the area of Indigenous Affairs.
Refugees
He is most remembered for representing Vivian Solon
, who was deported from Australia to the Philippines; Cornelia Rau
, who was detained in an Australian detention centre for 10 months; the Sudanese Dafurian Community and the family of the late Richard Niyonsaba. Newhouse has also acted for Tamil, Chinese, Palestinian and Iranian asylum seekers following the Rau and Solon cases.
In June 2010 Newhouse represented 8 Tamil asylum seekers in their complaint to the Australian Human Rights Commission regarding the suspension of the processing of their visas. All have now been processed and released.
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 He was also able to have a family with two vulnerable children moved from Inverbrackie Detention Centre in Adelaide to community detention in Sydney.
Newhouse has championed the use of the Commonwealth's common law duty of care to have children released from fenced detention
In 2011 he represented the survivors and relatives of those who died in the Christmas Island Boat Tragedy in the WA Coroner's Court and he represented the next of kin of one of the three suicides in Villawood before the NSW Coroner . He also obtained an injunction to stop the first Afghan asylum seeker to be forcibly returned to Afghanistan .
Abuse of Power
Newhouse had an assault charge dismissed against a 64 year old grandmother, Mrs Leentije (Eva) McDonald, who was searched by police outside a pub in Maroubra NSW in unusual circumstances.
Aboriginal Australians
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.
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.
In August 2009 Newhouse, on behalf of Barbara Shaw and other town camp residents, gathered a team of lawyers led by Ronald 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.
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.
During 2010 Newhouse worked with the Aboriginal Communities in the Northern Territory to fight for a fair rent to be paid by the Commonwealth for leases which the Commonwealth had taken over Aboriginal Land which were compulsorily acquired under the Northern Territory Intervention Legislation.
In May 2010 Newhouse assisted The Traditional Aboriginal Owners of Muckaty Station to commence legal action against the Northern Land Council and the Commonwealth in order to overturn the nomination of their land as the site of Australia's first radioactive waste storage facility.
In January 2011 Newhouse successfully represented the Hermannsburg Bulldogs, an Indigenous AFL team from Hermannsburg, Northern Territory
and had them reinstated into the Central Australian AFL competition after they were suspended from the competition without due process.
Newhouse has 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-antisemitism and human rights abuse.
Homosexual Vilification
Newhouse has represented gay activist Gary Burns in two of his homosexual vilification cases.
Looted Nazi Artworks
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 Nazi officials, recognised by the National Gallery of Victoria
.
In 2008, following the Australia 2020 summit, Newhouse together with Warren Mundine
established the Australian Indigenous Chamber of Commerce to promote indigenous entrepreneurship. Newhouse remains a director of the chamber to date.
Newhouse is also a member of the Board of the Stolen Generations Testimony Foundation and of the Advisory Board of the Buzo Theatre Company.
In August 2009 Newhouse travelled to PNG to establish the Adrian Lam Foundation to assist youth in PNG through education and sport.
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.
Newhouse was elected to the executive of the Local Government Association in 2004 by councillors from around New South Wales.
Newhouse was elected Deputy Mayor of Waverley in 2004 and became Mayor in September 2006. 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.
Newhouse did not recontest the 2008 Local Government Election or the 2010 Federal Election.
, held by the Liberal
member, Malcolm Turnbull
, who was Minister for Environment in the Howard Government. He then resigned as Mayor of Waverley. Although Wentworth had never been won by Labor, there was speculation that after a redistribution it might be winnable. The fact that Newhouse is Jewish was thought to give him an advantage in an electorate with a large Jewish population.
During the campaign Newhouse accepted the Labor Party's decision to back the construction of the Bell Bay Pulp Mill
in the Tamar Valley, Tasmania
. This led to criticism from the Australian Greens
and other environmentalists. Two candidates, former Sydney Deputy Mayor Dixie Coulton and Danielle Ecuyer, nominated against him 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. 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.
In the days before the election the Liberal Party increased its strident 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.
On polling day Newhouse was assaulted by a prominent female journalist Caroline Overington
at their local polling booth.
The editor-in-chief of The Australian, Chris Mitchell, mediated the between the two. and the Australian published an apology to Newhouse on 4 December 2007.
Newhouse increased Labor's primary vote at the 2007 election and made Wentworth a marginal seat, taking Labor to within 3.85% of victory.
Waverley Municipal Council
Waverley Municipal Council is a Local Government Area in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia.- History :...
in the eastern suburbs of Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
from 2006 to 2007, and the Australian Labor Party
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
candidate for the seat of Wentworth
Division of Wentworth
The Division of Wentworth is an Australian Electoral Division in the state of New South Wales. It was proclaimed in 1900 and was one of the original 75 divisions contested at the first federal election. The Division is named after William Charles Wentworth , a noted Australian explorer and statesman...
at the 2007 Australian federal election. Newhouse is a practicing solicitor and heads up Shine Lawyers Social Justice Practice.
Professional Career
Newhouse attended Sydney Grammar SchoolSydney Grammar School
Sydney Grammar School is an independent, non-denominational, selective, day school for boys, located in Darlinghurst, Edgecliff and St Ives, all suburbs of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia....
and then studied Law and Commerce at the University of New South Wales
University of New South Wales
The University of New South Wales , is a research-focused university based in Kensington, a suburb in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia...
.
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
Consumer, Trader and Tenancy Tribunal of New South Wales
The Consumer, Trader and Tenancy Tribunal of New South Wales is a tribunal that specialises in resolving consumer disputes in New South Wales, a state of Australia. The tribunal has concurrent jurisdiction in respect of certain consumer claims with the normal civil courts of New South Wales. In...
from 1999 to 2007 and a mediator for the Workers Compensation Commission
Workers Compensation Commission of New South Wales
The Workers Compensation Commission of New South Wales is a tribunal in the Australian State of New South Wales. It has unlimited jurisdiction within the state in workers compensation matters....
from 2001 to 2010.
Newhouse is the Corporate Counsel for Surry Partners Lawyers where he specialises in Defamation, Negligence, Property, Finance and Planning Law. Newhouse is also Special Counsel at Shine Lawyers where he heads up their Social Justice Practice. He is also the chapter editor of Thompson Reuters "The Laws of Australia: Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders - Civil Justice Issues".
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.Refugees
He is most remembered for representing Vivian Solon
Vivian Solon
Vivian Alvarez Solon is an Australian who was unlawfully removed to the Philippines by the Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs in July 2001. In May 2005, it became public knowledge that she had been deported, although DIMIA knew of its mistake in 2003...
, who was deported from Australia to the Philippines; Cornelia Rau
Cornelia Rau
Cornelia Rau is a German citizen and Australian permanent resident who was unlawfully detained for a period of ten months in 2004 and 2005 as part of the Australian Government's mandatory detention program.- Overview :...
, who was detained in an Australian detention centre for 10 months; the Sudanese Dafurian Community and the family of the late Richard Niyonsaba. Newhouse has also acted for Tamil, Chinese, Palestinian and Iranian asylum seekers following the Rau and Solon cases.
In June 2010 Newhouse represented 8 Tamil asylum seekers in their complaint to the Australian Human Rights Commission regarding the suspension of the processing of their visas. All have now been processed and released.
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 He was also able to have a family with two vulnerable children moved from Inverbrackie Detention Centre in Adelaide to community detention in Sydney.
Newhouse has championed the use of the Commonwealth's common law duty of care to have children released from fenced detention
In 2011 he represented the survivors and relatives of those who died in the Christmas Island Boat Tragedy in the WA Coroner's Court and he represented the next of kin of one of the three suicides in Villawood before the NSW Coroner . He also obtained an injunction to stop the first Afghan asylum seeker to be forcibly returned to Afghanistan .
Abuse of Power
Newhouse had an assault charge dismissed against a 64 year old grandmother, Mrs Leentije (Eva) McDonald, who was searched by police outside a pub in Maroubra NSW in unusual circumstances.
Aboriginal Australians
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.
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.
In August 2009 Newhouse, on behalf of Barbara Shaw and other town camp residents, gathered a team of lawyers led by Ronald Merkel QC to stop the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Jenny Macklin
Jenny Macklin
Jennifer Louise Macklin , is an Australian politician. She is Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs in the Gillard Ministry...
from proceeding with her takeover of the Alice Springs Town Camps and entering into a 40 year lease with the town camp associations.
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.
During 2010 Newhouse worked with the Aboriginal Communities in the Northern Territory to fight for a fair rent to be paid by the Commonwealth for leases which the Commonwealth had taken over Aboriginal Land which were compulsorily acquired under the Northern Territory Intervention Legislation.
In May 2010 Newhouse assisted The Traditional Aboriginal Owners of Muckaty Station to commence legal action against the Northern Land Council and the Commonwealth in order to overturn the nomination of their land as the site of Australia's first radioactive waste storage facility.
In January 2011 Newhouse successfully represented the Hermannsburg Bulldogs, an Indigenous AFL team from Hermannsburg, Northern Territory
Hermannsburg, Northern Territory
Hermannsburg is an Aboriginal community in the Northern Territory of Australia, 131 km southwest of Alice Springs. It is known in the local Western Arrernte language as Ntaria....
and had them reinstated into the Central Australian AFL competition after they were suspended from the competition without due process.
Newhouse has 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-antisemitism and human rights abuse.
Homosexual Vilification
Newhouse has represented gay activist Gary Burns in two of his homosexual vilification cases.
Looted Nazi Artworks
Newhouse acted for the Emden Family in their efforts to have their claim, that the painting 'Lady with a fan', by Gerard ter Borch
Gerard ter Borch
Gerard ter Borch was a Dutch genre painter, who lived in the Dutch Golden Age.-Biography:Gerard ter Borch was born in December 1617 in Zwolle in the province of Overijssel in the Dutch Republic....
was stolen from their grandfather Max Emden by Nazi officials, recognised by the National Gallery of Victoria
National Gallery of Victoria
The National Gallery of Victoria is an art gallery and museum in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is the oldest and the largest public art gallery in Australia. Since December 2003, NGV has operated across two sites...
.
Board Memberships
In 2004 Newhouse was appointed to the NSW Architects Registration Board to represent the views of local government. He is also a former board member of the Australian Women Chamber of Commerce & Industry .In 2008, following the Australia 2020 summit, Newhouse together with Warren Mundine
Warren Mundine
Warren Stephen Mundine is an Australian Aboriginal leader and the former National President of the Australian Labor Party . He is a member of the Bundjalung people....
established the Australian Indigenous Chamber of Commerce to promote indigenous entrepreneurship. Newhouse remains a director of the chamber to date.
Newhouse is also a member of the Board of the Stolen Generations Testimony Foundation and of the Advisory Board of the Buzo Theatre Company.
In August 2009 Newhouse travelled to PNG to establish the Adrian Lam Foundation to assist youth in PNG through education and sport.
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.
Political activity
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). 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 during a period of major upgrade including the $600 million Westfield redevelopment and the upgrade of Oxford Street.Newhouse was elected to the executive of the Local Government Association in 2004 by councillors from around New South Wales.
Newhouse was elected Deputy Mayor of Waverley in 2004 and became Mayor in September 2006. 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
Climate change
Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...
at a local level, by committing Waverley Council to be carbon-neutral within five years and supporting other environmentally-friendly initiatives.
Newhouse did not recontest the 2008 Local Government Election or the 2010 Federal Election.
2007 election
Newhouse was endorsed in May 2007 as Labor candidate for the federal electorate of WentworthWentworth
-People:* Baron Wentworth , the Wentworth peerage, several men and women.* D'Arcy Wentworth , surgeon in the early days of Sydney, Australia, and father of William Charles Wentworth I....
, held by the Liberal
Liberal Party of Australia
The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...
member, Malcolm Turnbull
Malcolm Turnbull
Malcolm Bligh Turnbull is an Australian politician. He has been a member of the Australian House of Representatives since 2004, and was Leader of the Opposition and parliamentary leader of the Liberal Party from 16 September 2008 to 1 December 2009.Turnbull has represented the Division...
, who was Minister for Environment in the Howard Government. He then resigned as Mayor of Waverley. Although Wentworth had never been won by Labor, there was speculation that after a redistribution it might be winnable. The fact that Newhouse is Jewish was thought to give him an advantage in an electorate with a large Jewish population.
During the campaign Newhouse accepted the Labor Party's decision to back the construction of the Bell Bay Pulp Mill
Bell Bay Pulp Mill
The Bell Bay Pulp Mill, also known as the Tamar Valley Pulp Mill or Gunns Pulp Mill, is a proposed $2.3 billion pulp mill which Gunns Limited is planning to build in the Tamar Valley, near Launceston, Tasmania.-Proposed mill:...
in the Tamar Valley, Tasmania
Tamar Valley, Tasmania
The Tamar Valley is a picturesque valley in Tasmania. It runs north-west from the northern city of Launceston to the coast either side of the Tamar River, a distance of approximately 50 km....
. This led to criticism from the Australian Greens
Australian Greens
The Australian Greens, commonly known as The Greens, is an Australian green political party.The party was formed in 1992; however, its origins can be traced to the early environmental movement in Australia and the formation of the United Tasmania Group , the first Green party in the world, which...
and other environmentalists. Two candidates, former Sydney Deputy Mayor Dixie Coulton and Danielle Ecuyer, nominated against him 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
Consumer, Trader and Tenancy Tribunal of New South Wales
The Consumer, Trader and Tenancy Tribunal of New South Wales is a tribunal that specialises in resolving consumer disputes in New South Wales, a state of Australia. The tribunal has concurrent jurisdiction in respect of certain consumer claims with the normal civil courts of New South Wales. In...
and the Workers Compensation Commission
Workers Compensation Commission of New South Wales
The Workers Compensation Commission of New South Wales is a tribunal in the Australian State of New South Wales. It has unlimited jurisdiction within the state in workers compensation matters....
before nominating. 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.
In the days before the election the Liberal Party increased its strident attacks on Newhouse by revealing that a Newhouse campaign worker, former National Union of Students
National Union of Students (Australia)
The National Union of Students is the peak representative body for Australian university students. Most student unions in Australian campuses are affiliated to NUS...
President Rose Jackson
Rose Jackson
Rose Jackson is a Councillor for Waverley Council in Sydney, Australia. She was the former President of the Australian National Union of Students...
, 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.
On polling day Newhouse was assaulted by a prominent female journalist Caroline Overington
Caroline Overington
Caroline Overington is an Australian journalist and author.Born in May 1970, Overington grew up in Melton, Victoria where she attended Melton South Primary School and Melton High School. Post secondary school she began her journalism cadetship with The Age Suburban Newspapers. She later took up a...
at their local polling booth.
The editor-in-chief of The Australian, Chris Mitchell, mediated the between the two. and the Australian published an apology to Newhouse on 4 December 2007.
Newhouse increased Labor's primary vote at the 2007 election and made Wentworth a marginal seat, taking Labor to within 3.85% of victory.