Shows / Background Briefing
Background Briefing
Background Briefing is the ABC's flagship investigative journalism podcast. Its award-winning investigations and documentaries expose cover-ups, corruption, real-life mysteries, whistleblowing, crime, fraud and miscarriages of justice — often before these stories receive mainstream attention. The Background Briefing podcast brings you true stories not everyone will want you to hear, told by trusted reporters across Australia. This Australian podcast makes investigative journalism bingeable…
Episodes
Background BriefingPigs in the middle
Animal welfare activists are at war with pig farmers, targeting and secretly filming piggeries across the country. They say it’s the only way to force changes…
Background BriefingThe search for the clean coal holy grail
The Abbott government is tying the success of its Direct Action policy to a clean coal technology that is still in the very early stages of development. Paddy…
Background BriefingWhy was nobody watching?
Minor offender Mark Payne was on 24-hour suicide watch in a maximum security South Australian prison cell when he died. No one noticed because Yatala prison…
Background BriefingPrEP pill: 'party drug' or life saver?
With HIV infections at a 20 year high there’s a push to subsidise a daily pill that can stop infection. But health professionals and the gay community are…
Background BriefingNo one's smoking anything
It’s estimated thousands of Australians are risking arrest by using cannabis for medical reasons. A national clinical trial has been announced but legalisation…
Background BriefingFeral cats rewrite the Australian story
Twenty million feral cats are behind a deadly second wave of extinctions in Australia. Can they be stopped or will they finish off what 230 years of settlement…
Background BriefingThe battle for the City of Sydney
New legislation to give businesses twice the vote in choosing the Sydney City Council is under attack for being undemocratic and an attempt to oust the long…
Background BriefingWhat's fair pay for people with intellectual disabilities?
A big win in the federal court should have delivered fairer wages for people with disabilities. But could it throw thousands out of a job? Melinda James…
Background BriefingDeath in a five star nursing home
The deaths of two elderly women raise serious questions about the way nursing homes are accredited and who is held accountable for failures of care. Anne…
Background BriefingISDS: The devil in the trade deal
A common provision allowing foreign investors to sue host governments has become a ticking time bomb inside trade agreements, like the soon to be signed TPP…
Background BriefingCairns mega casino gamble
The Aquis casino resort planned for Cairns would dwarf its competitors. So do the numbers add up, and what are the downsides?
Background BriefingParents flee Access Ministries religion classes
There's growing pressure on the Victorian Government to dump religious instruction after more than 50 schools removed the controversial Christian religious…
Background BriefingDoctors as dealers: Australia's opioid habit
In the last few years prescriptions of opioids for chronic pain have skyrocketed creating a new wave of drug addicts. Ann Arnold investigates Australia's new…
Background Briefing'The price should be killing them': Israeli settler on revenge attacks
The war in Gaza was triggered by tit for tat kidnaps and killings between Jews and Palestinians. Reporter Hagar Cohen tells a remarkable story about the lives…
Background BriefingAsbestos: The Mr Fluffy fiasco
Forty years ago highly dangerous asbestos insulation fluff was pumped into Canberra and NSW homes by a contractor known as 'Mr Fluffy'. In Canberra there's…
Background BriefingThe price of gas
Australians are about to face even bigger gas bills, and business is being driven offshore. So is the solution more coal seam gas fields, or should gas…
Background BriefingCould Campbell Newman be the new Sir Joh?
Queensland Premier Campbell Newman is not afraid of a fight. His handpicked Chief Justice enraged the judiciary, but it was his action to dismantle key…
- Background Briefing
The search for the clean coal holy grail
How did clean coal technology make some coal barons unspeakably rich? In this special investigation guest reporter Paddy Manning tracks the quest for the holy…
Background BriefingClive's Territory tilt
Away from the Canberra spotlight the Palmer United Party has made an audacious play for power in the NT, shaking up the status quo and a lot more. Ann Arnold…
Background BriefingWho killed the charity watchdog?
The Abbott government plans to kill off Australia's first charities watchdog. Reporter Sarah Dingle investigates who's behind the push to nobble regulation of…
Background BriefingThe price of power
The Abbott government blames the carbon tax for the enormous rise in power prices. But what do we actually know about the price of power? Jess Hill investigates
Background BriefingConcussion games
With growing evidence that concussion is linked to long term brain injuries, collision sports are on notice. But the AFL's concussion experts have attacked the…
Background BriefingCountry towns: death or deliverance
Economic modelling says inland towns are finished. But after travelling to the Tasmanian town of Scottsdale Di Martin finds a community defying the death knock
Background BriefingCombat sports: The Wild West
Following the death of a kickboxer in NSW a review of combat sports found an industry that resembled the Wild West, with a lack of regulation, unlicensed…
Background BriefingBosnia's forgotten victims
As the former Bosnian Serb commander General Ratko Mladic starts his defence against genocide charges at the International Criminal Court, we go back to the…
Background BriefingThe Salvos: a matter of trust
As it embarks on its annual fundraising weekend, one of the our oldest charities is facing claims of child sexual abuse. The Salvo's has at least one known…
Background BriefingBack to prison
More than half the people in prison will re-offend and return, creating a huge burden for us all. So why is the NSW government dumping a service that helps…
Background BriefingGuns in America
Two weekends ago, as 4 people were killed and 35 wounded in shootings in one American city, a few hours away 70,000 people gathered to oppose gun controls, at…
Background BriefingThe great Tasmanian fox hunt
A discredited story about fox cubs being released in Tasmania triggered a decade-long hunt for the predators but despite millions of public funds spent on an…
- Background Briefing
The price of power
With Australian electricity prices amongst the highest in the world, more and more households are going solar. The big power companies say the Renewable Energy…
Background BriefingThe man without a name
It’s a fundamental principle of our legal system that courts should be open and the media should be free to report on court proceedings. Yet the man known as…
Background BriefingThe missing migrants
Hundreds of migrants die each year trying to enter the United States illegally from Mexico and those who don’t make it often aren’t found for years. Will Grant…
Background BriefingMonika Chetty murder investigation continues as blackmail claims emerge
Monika Chetty died from severe chemical burns three weeks after she was found in bushland. Police have not yet identified her attacker but there is mounting…
Background BriefingBig food fight continues after Senator Fiona Nash controversy
The health star rating website was part of a federal government initiative to help consumers identify healthy foods. It was two years in the planning but one…
Background BriefingMorwell residents left to burn after Hazelwood fire
A fire in Hazelwood's giant open cut mine raged out of control for nearly a month. It dumped toxic smoke over the 12,000 residents of Morwell, forcing many to…
Background BriefingThe trouble with offsets
Environmental offsets are supposed to compensate for ecosystems and biodiversity that are bulldozed to make way for development. But there’s mounting evidence…
Background BriefingThe Abbot Point gamble
On the doorstep of the Great Barrier Reef, Abbot Point is set to become one of the world’s biggest coal ports. But the yet-to-be-developed coal mines it's…
Background BriefingDeath in the line of duty
Traumatised police are shunned, isolated and put under secret surveillance. They lose their careers, friendships and often their homes, marriages and children…
Background BriefingDid the walls have ears?
Claims that Australia spied on East Timorese negotiators during oil and gas treaty talks are at the centre of a legal row that could throw the treaty into…
Background BriefingThe explosive risk of fuel tankers
Fuel tankers are among the most dangerous vehicles on the road, carrying loads that make them vulnerable to roll-over and explosion. Two recent, fatal…
Background BriefingIs sugar innocent?
Research by two of Australia’s leading nutritionists has found no connection between our consumption of added sugar in foods & drinks and our obesity crisis…
Background BriefingVLAD the bikie jailer
Queensland’s Vicious Lawless Association Disestablishment Act—VLAD—is designed to eradicate criminal bikie gangs but its many critics say the new law will…
Background BriefingThe barbecue stopper: the chikungunya mutation threatening Australia
An aggressive mosquito that’s spread a crippling virus through Asia is now being found at Australia’s border. The chikungunya virus is already being brought…
Background BriefingAn Australian nightmare in Dubai
Australian businessmen Matthew Joyce and Marcus Lee have now been freed after a nightmare four-year battle over corruption charges in Dubai. Background…
Background BriefingThe family trap: how the Royal Commission is missing many abuse cases
It is the institution in which the vast majority of child sexual abuse occurs but the victims won’t be able to tell their stories at the upcoming royal…
Background BriefingLyme: a four letter word
Australian GPs reveal why they are risking their reputations by diagnosing patients with Lyme disease—from Borrelia bacteria that are not even supposed to be…
Background BriefingCasualties in the supermarket war
As the competition watchdog looks into new allegations of the abuse of market power by Coles and Woolworths, food suppliers speak out about what they say is…
Background BriefingAsylum seekers: drowning on our watch
More than a thousand asylum seekers have died trying to get to Australia by boat. But how many of them could have been saved? Australia’s search and rescue…
Background BriefingComputer glitch blamed for 'hundreds' of wrongful arrests
A class action in the Supreme Court will look at whether NSW police wrongfully arrested and detained a number of teens due to a long standing glitch in the NSW…
Background BriefingParadise lost: Australia's heritage jewels under threat
Two of Australia’s world heritage wonders—the Great Barrier Reef and the Wet Tropics—are at risk of being declared ‘in danger’. Both are threatened by climate…
Background BriefingAt the end of the road
When are we too old to drive safely? Ann Arnold looks at the evidence for compulsory testing and the social impact of forcing older drivers off the road.
Background BriefingSame-sex marriage: the waiting game
With the High Court set to decide whether the ACT’s same-sex marriage laws can survive, Di Martin follows the highs and lows for a group of same-sex couples as…
Background BriefingWards of the state: the foster care crisis
As the demand for foster care grows, the number of carers for children who have been removed from their families is in decline.
Background BriefingZoe's Law: Human rights for a 20 week foetus?
The NSW Parliament is split along pro-choice and pro-life lines over a law that would be the first in Australia to give legal rights to a foetus.
Background BriefingEpidemic of ink
Once the domain of bad boys, bikies and sailors, tattoos are now part of mainstream fashion. Nearly three million Australians have been ‘inked’ and with the…
Background BriefingThe Syrian Connection
Among the thousands of foreign fighters in Syria, more than a hundred British nationals are thought to have joined armed opposition groups. Who are these men…
Background BriefingDeep sea riches could spark Pacific mining boom
A project to dig minerals from the seabed off Papua New Guinea could signal a new era of mining in the world’s most remote and least understood environment…