Ho Ho Ho
So, it’s that time of year, yet again, when department stores everywhere are all adorned with glistening synthetic trees, draped in twinkling tinsel and plastic holly, surrounded by cotton-wool snow and lovingly-wrapped empty packages. Competitively-priced sound system speakers spread jolly messages of good will to all, while the latest jumbo-sized LED Full HD Smart TV […]
Back to Square
“Chris Nyst took to the stage – along with film producer Trish Lake and award-winning actor David Wenham – to take part in a lively Q&A, hosted by local radio personality Bern Young, to announce the long-awaited sequel to their 2003 crime/comedy triumph, Gettin’ Square.”
The First Blink
No doubt the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, is an avid student of history. Wherever it was that he learned it, he certainly seems to know that, in a tense game of Cold War diplomacy, the minacious art of brinkmanship can often be absolutely everything.
Brick By Brick
– Originally published by Ocean Road Magazine edition #45, Summer 2022.
On the morning of Sunday, 13 August 1961, the citizens of the German capital, Berlin, awoke to an unfamiliar flurry of activity on their streets. During the night before, at the witching hour of midnight, under the orders of the East German Communist Party leader Walter Ulbrict, police and military units had begun sealing off the border between the Soviet-controlled east of the city and the west. By daylight, they had torn up the streets along the border, rendering them unusable, and lined them with barbed wire entanglements and fences that would ultimately stretch all along the 156 kilometres surrounding the three western sectors of the city.
The Fine Detail
As anyone can tell you, the property market is going absolutely gangbusters right now. So much so that a bidder at an auction in Sydney’s south last Saturday accidently bid against herself just as she was about to be declared the new owner of the property for sale at the hotly-contested auction. The final price was $1.62 million, with her previous bid being $1.619 million. The underbidder’s last offer was $1.618 million.
Heroes and Villains
Some years ago I attended a breakfast at the Sheraton Hotel on the Gold Coast, at which the then highly-respected – and now much-maligned – Victoria Cross recipient, Ben Roberts-Smith, was the featured guest speaker. In his riveting address, Mr Roberts-Smith enthralled his audience with a detailed account of his service with the Australian Defence Force in Afghanistan, including the extraordinary events that saw him bestowed Australia’s highest award for valour and devotion to duty in the theatre of war. As anyone who has heard the war hero’s harrowing tale of combat and courage under fire could tell you, it’s a hell of a yarn. And boy, did he tell it well.
Cat-O-Strophic Technology
The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have been vast, not least of all in the development of digital communication all around the globe. It is now the norm for enterprises large and small to go online, working from home, holding meetings virtually by Skype, or Zoom, or TeamViewer, and rarely, if ever, speaking with their colleagues face to face. It’s easier, cheaper, and far more convenient, and business leaders everywhere have heralded the virtual communication revolution as the brave new world.
Covid Flux
With COVID-19 directives flying thick and fast from both federal and state institutions, many of us may be getting a little confused about precisely what we can and can’t do, as a matter of law. Every day, someone asks my advice about the fine detail – “Can I drive in a car with my friend/spouse/lover/sister/workmate?”, “Can I walk on the beach with a friend?”, “Can I stroll in the park for fresh air?” – and it’s not always easy to give a definitive answer. The reason is the day to day requirements at law are not set in stone but rather, like the crisis itself, they’re in a state of continual flux.
A Right To Know
Don’t you sometimes miss the good, old-fashioned Moral High Ground?
As a post-war baby, the world I was born into seemed a brave and righteous one. Our fathers had just fought and died to free us all from fascism and oppression. The world had paid a terrible price, but it was all worth it. In the end we won, and the Bad Guys lost.
Malice Aforethought
Last week, a Queensland mother became the first person to be charged under the State’s new, expanded definition of murder laws, after allegedly leaving her two infant children to die in the blistering heat of her car, after falling asleep one Saturday afternoon.
The Means To The End
About ten years before the birth of Christ the great Roman poet Publius Ovidius Naso, in his collection of epistolary poems known as The Heroides, coined the Latin phrase Exitus acta probat, which translates roughly to the often-quoted mantra ‘The end justifies the means’. It is a sentiment celebrated by the Italian Renaissance writer Niccolo Machiavelli in the 1500’s and enthusiastically embraced by a long list of authoritarian dictators throughout history. Thankfully, it has no place in the criminal justice system of any modern western democracy.
Driver Lock-Out Laws
Over the next 24 months or so, the State government looks set to roll out various amendments to our traffic laws which will have a significant effect on penalties meted out to drink drivers on our roads. On 12 September this year, the Queensland Parliament assented to the Transport Legislation (Road Safety and Other Matters) Amendment Act 2019, which introduces substantial changes to a swathe of traffic regulation legislation. Amongst the more notable changes are provisions regarding the mandatory use of interlock devices for those convicted of any drink driving offence.