Chris Hunt

  
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After leaving school, I went on to do Arts and Law degrees at Sydney University. During the Arts phase, there were lots of NSBHS friends, and we socialised (sometimes to excess!) together. My results reflected this, but I got more serious when doing Law, and my grades improved accordingly.

In 1968, I got a job in the Ministerial Office of the then NSW Attorney-General (Ken McCaw), and that started some 30 years working in the public sector, variously in the NSW, Commonwealth and ACT Governments, mostly in positions which required a legal background. A lot of it was interesting and quite good fun, some memories including:
  • Providing policy advice, for a couple of years, to the amazing Bob Askin, where my alleged areas of expertise included crime and law enforcement!
  • After moving to Canberra in 1974, having a modest role in some of the extraordinary Constitutional and political events in the Whitlam era and subsequently
  • A Government appointment as Deputy Commonwealth Ombudsman
  • Some 7 years as CEO of the ACT Attorney-General Department, with the very challenging task of putting together a complete law and justice system, starting virtually from scratch.
In the mid 1990s I left the public service and set up a consultancy practice specialising in undertaking independent investigations and inquiries mostly requested by government agencies, and mostly concerning some sort of allegations of misconduct. Over the next 15 years or so, I think I undertook some 140 such investigations. When we instigated our sea change to Queensland in 2008 (see hereunder), it was no longer practicable to maintain the consultancy, and so I retired (although I continue to do quite a bit of pro bono work for friends and relatives, mostly in the area of consumer protection).

On the personal front, I married Penny Murphy (NSGHS etc) in 1967, and we had two boys. Penny and I later went our separate ways, but we remain good friends; she, our two sons, and five grandchildren all still live in Canberra, and we all try to see as much of each other as we can. The boys are both in the television news industry. They were all in attendance, plus many friends from Canberra days and otherwise, when we recently had a function in Canberra to celebrate the commencement of my life as an Octogenarian.

In 1986, I married Jenny Tunn, and we have had two daughters (one is a lawyer and the other is in child protection, living in Brisbane and the Gold Coast respectively), plus three more grandchildren.

Jenny is a Queenslander with strong links to Sunshine Beach (near Noosa). We built a house there, and permanently re-located in 2008. I have had the good fortune to live for extended periods in three quite different locations:
  • I loved growing up in Sydney, in particular in Greenwich, and still have good friends from that era
  • Canberra was wonderful not only for its signature National Capital features, but also for a range of outdoor activities that I loved, especially bushwalking and skiing
  • At Sunshine Beach, it is wonderful to start the day with a trek in the nearby National Park (I used to call it jogging, but these days it is more like fast walking!) followed by a beach swim. I also love kayaking, mostly on the Noosa River.