Crocs in the Cabinet

Front Cover
Hachette Australia, Nov 29, 2016 - Biography & Autobiography - 320 pages

In the Northern Territory, politics isn't a numbers game, it's a blood sport.

The recent goings-on in Top End politics make the Rudd, Gillard, Abbott and Turnbull skirmishes in Canberra look positively civil and Bronwyn Bishop's travel expenses like small change. Not since the night Malcolm Fraser lost his trousers has the Australian political scene provided such entertainment. Laying bare the backstabbing, scandals, power struggles and flawed characters that took the Country Liberal Party from the Northern Territory's dominant political force to near extinction in four short years, CROCS IN THE CABINET may read like a satire, but it is all true. You have to read it to believe it. Find out exactly how bonkers the NT parliament really was, as you read of ...

- a drunk Territory minister, a seedy Tokyo 'cabaret' club, a $5000 bar tab and taxpayer-funded credit card. Priceless!

- the lewd videos a masturbating minister sent someone, not his wife

- the anguished words 'WE ARE IN LOVE!' echoing from the floor of parliament

- a Chief Minister defying a coup by throwing his phone in a pool

- the 'gone fishing' MP who chose baiting up instead of turning up

- the minister, charged with assault, who sold her 'MY HUSBAND IS HAVING AN AFFAIR WITH MY NIECE' story to TAKE 5 magazine.

Two of the NT NEWS's best journalists, Walkley Award-winning Ben Smee and award-winning Christopher A Walsh, show that the NT NEWS is not just crocodiles and quirky front pages - its hard-hitting investigative
journalists also deliver a memorable bite.

This is FEAR AND LOATHING ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL meets FAWLTY TOWERS.

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About the author (2016)

Ben Smee is the Deputy Editor of the NT NEWS. He won a Walkley Award in 2014 for his coverage of Northern Territory politics during stints as the paper's Chief Political Reporter and Head of News. Ben is also the 2015 NT Journalist of the Year. He previously worked for the NEWCASTLE HERALD where he won awards for his investigations and news coverage, including being selected as a finalist for Walkley Young Australian Journalist of the Year in 2009. CROCS IN THE CABINET is Ben's first book. He lives in Darwin. Christopher A Walsh is an award-winning political journalist with the NT NEWS. A native of Canada, his work has appeared in a variety of publications there, covering everything from the east coast carnival to politics across the country. His first book, UNDER THE ELECTRIC SKY, was an Atlantic Book Award finalist for Best Literary Non-fiction. From the carnival of Canada to the circus of NT politics, he is currently based in Darwin.