The dark before it got darker.

I first met 'Uncle' Peter Beattie in the dining room of the Jardin Hotel on Thursday Island, when, as then health minister for the state of Queensland, he was hosting a dinner for the launch of a new health exercise video across the Torres Straits.

It was about 1995.It was buffet night at the Jardin. As I went back and back again to sample the various dishes on offer, the man introduced himself to me on no less than three occasions. "Hello, I'm Peter Beattie" his Macleans smile dazzled.

Later that evening, as I pecked at a piece of coconut crumble, I looked over and there he was, lording it up at a table of local elders. There were no women in sight. The elders seemed to hang off his every word. Who was schmoozing whom, I wondered.It was interesting at the time, in a sneer inducing way, to see a politician in full flight.

Little did I know the damage this man, as Premier, and his cronies would wrought on the state health system over the next decade.