On the wall of my home office in a leafy Canberra suburb hangs a framed front page of the Northern Territory News of which I’m perversely proud. Over a photograph of a journalist, me, being strangled by a politician, Max Ortmann, a headline proclaims MAX DIDN’T TUG HARD ENOUGH.

Back in 1993 I was working for the 7.30 Report based in Darwin and, in early August that year, was celebrating the birth of our son Harry and enjoying the paradise that is the top end in the dry season.

But I’d heard a rumour that Max Ortmann, the Minister for Works in the Country Liberal party NT Government was handing out favours to people who had helped him attain office.