SA: Nudist judge hangs up his robes

AAP General News (Australia)
12-07-1999
SA: Nudist judge hangs up his robes

By Tim Dornin

ADELAIDE, Dec 7 AAP - He sunbathes nude, rides a mountain bike to work and knocks back pay rises.

But at the same time Robin Millhouse has held positions of significant power and influence
in South Australia, firstly as a longstanding politician and most recently as a Supreme
Court judge.

The 70-year-old hangs up his robes tomorrow, drawing the curtain on a career in public
life that has been noteworthy to say the least.

It led him to scale the lofty heights of public service, even as he continued to buck
many of its conventions and unspoken rules.

Justice Millhouse, who considers long-serving SA Premier and Liberal icon Sir Thomas
Playford as his mentor, began his parliamentary career as a Liberal MP and eventually
held the suburban seat of Mitcham for 27 years.

But it was not quite so simple. His parliamentary career was marked with controversy,
the former attorney-general and often maverick MP stunning his colleagues by joining the
breakaway Liberal Movement in 1974.

When that group returned to the Liberal fold he transferred his allegiance to the New
Liberal Movement before eventually becoming the sole Australian Democrats MP in the South
Australian lower house.

Such was his popularity in Mitcham that going into the 1979 state election, the government
would have needed a swing of more than 32 per cent to take the seat from him, despite
it being solidly blue ribbon Liberal in previous years.

So in a move which the Labor opposition said smacked of political opportunism, the
government decided to promote him instead, making Mr Millhouse MP, Justice Millhouse in
1982.

Just as the appointment came as a bolt from the blue (as Millhouse described it at
the time), equally surprising was his decision to accept.

It brought an end to a political career marked by his fearless lambasting of both the
government and opposition and his colourful antics, including a reported habit of dashing
naked between the parliament house shower block and his office after midday jogging.

On the Supreme Court bench Justice Millhouse took with him his passions for running
and bike riding and even today they are listed in Who's Who among his recreational interests,
along with nude sun bathing.

A regular in Adelaide fun runs and noted for always competing in just a pair of shorts,
he also became a devotee of Adelaide's only nudist beach, Maslins.

In 1996 he even spoke out against moves by the local council to restrict disrobing
in certain sections of the beach, particularly those around the toilet and shower block.

In later years, Justice Millhouse turned his athletic attentions to the emerging sport
of triathlon and at one stage competed internationally in his age group.

He also became something of a thorn in the side of the government and his fellow judges
through the 1990s when he continually objected to pay rises and other perks.

In 1991 he turned down an offer of a car as part of his salary package, asking instead
for a mountain bike.

He said he'd take the car only if he could lend it indefinitely to a friend who did
not earn as much as judges and could not afford a vehicle.

He later refused to accept pay rises granted to judges, donating the money either to
charity, or, in one case, to the Legal Services Commission after the federal government's
1997 decision to cut funds to legal aid.

It left no doubt that Justice Millhouse liked to raise eyebrows, something he continued
right up until his last major case two weeks ago when he awarded a Tasmanian man more
than $30 million in damages for a 30-metre model dinosaur destroyed by fire.

The model T-Rex could have become a movie star, earning its owners millions more, the
judge argued.

The ruling left the respondents in the action gasping for breath, the same reaction
Justice Millhouse had provoked from many of his opponents during his public life, in both
the political and athletic arenas.

AAP tjd/sn/cjh/br

KEYWORD: MILLHOUSE (AAP NEWSFEATURE)

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