IN THE ’70s and early ’80s, Terry Forrester was an inveterate street marcher who took every opportunity to put the boot into Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen’s corrupt cops, shady lands deals and conservative government. In the further reaches of Queensland’s gutter press, Terry sought to add a few facts to the many conspiracy theories swirling around Joh. His research into the premier’s election funding led to questions in the Senate and earned Terry an early morning police raid with the threat of a drug bust that would send him away for life.

Terry decided that discretion was the better part of valour and he became a Queensland refugee. He moved to Sydney, got a girlfriend and found a steady job in public relations. Meanwhile, the Fitzgerald Inquiry rolled through Brisbane and Terry laughed at the nightly news as the old conspiracy theories were proved correct. A mate from the street march days was now the Labor campaign director and when the call came to work on Wayne Goss’s campaign, Terry was on the next bus. The campaign director liked Terry’s ability to conjure something from nothing and after the Goss victory gave him a gig as party media officer.