Category: Opinion
  • Chris Nyst, Criminal Law, Opinion, Sport

Brother For Brother

We choose our friends. We don’t choose our family. But family is family, for better or for worse. Mostly we love them, at times they drive us to distraction. They embarrass us, and we embarrass them. But as life pitches up its cruel and crazy curveballs, family is a constant.
  • Chris Nyst, Hollywood, Opinion, Technology

Watch Phones Taking Us Back To The Future

Picture: Lloyd Dirks Source: Unsplash When I was a kid every afternoon after school my brothers and I used to love watching The Dick Tracy Show on T.V. Detective Dickie would hurtle through the city streets in his police squad car barking into his radio wristwatch "Dick Tracy calling Go-Go Gomez, Dick Tracy calling Go-Go Gomez. Come in Go Go.” It was pretty gripping stuff. And very futuristic. A telephone attached to your wrist?! Who figured that would ever happen? Now we read that by 2018 five per cent of all smartphones will be paired with a Dick Tracy-type device. Crazy.
  • Chris Nyst, Criminal Law, Opinion

Hot Mugshot Guy – Are We Seriously Losing It?

The story that went viral last week about the so-called "hot mugshot guy" Jeremy Meeks raises some very interesting social issues in this new world of all-pervasive media. With television news reports following real-life crimes and court cases in a blow-by-blow, up-close-and-personal style, reality television crews following around cops and customs officers filming them in action, increasingly realistic and graphic CSI-type T.V. shows giving us a voyeur’s view into real-life crime (or is it ?), and interactive computer games like Grand Theft Auto allowing our kids a hands-on, albeit computer generated, experience in committing crime, the question has to be asked – are we seriously losing touch with reality? Society’s apparently increasing fascination with crime and criminals has many wondering whether at least some amongst us may be finding it difficult to distinguish between reality and entertainment.
  • Chris Nyst, Opinion

Resistance To Cruise Ship Terminal – Sound Policy Or Just Nostalgia?

I see Councillor Susie Douglas is leading the charge with the Gold Coast Community Alliance to fight the proposed cruise ship terminal. There’s certainly a lot of interest from locals on both sides of the fence.
  • Chris Nyst, Opinion, Politics

Is The Chief Justice Debate About Carmody?

I read with great interest the newspaper report on comments made by Court of Appeal Justice John Muir in his recent address to the North Queensland branch of the Bar Association’s biannual Court of Appeal dinner in Townsville.
  • Chris Nyst, Opinion, Politics

What Sort Of People Do We Want As Our Judges?

Opinions differ as to how we should select our judicial officers. Inevitably, ambitions, politics and prejudice play a part in people's views on the subject, and the conversation often ranges from academic to acrimonious. The controversy surrounding the recent appointment of Brisbane barrister Mr Tim Carmody QC to the role of Chief Justice of the Queensland Supreme Court is just another case in point. Nearly 15 years ago senior legal academic Barbara Hamilton delivered a paper on the subject, in a slightly different context, that is still well worth revisiting today. I would recommend to any avid student of the current debate around judicial appointments.