Shows / Background Briefing

Background Briefing

ABC Australia · en · 1011 episodes

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…

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Episodes

Background Briefing
Where there's smoke
A fatal fire in a Sydney high rise apartment building has exposed widespread failures in fire safety compliance. For residents of Australia’s tallest apartment…
Oct 27, 2012·36m
Background Briefing
For their eyes only
ASIO and law enforcement agencies say technology is undermining their capabilities. They want new powers, including access to two years of our phone and…
Oct 20, 2012·52m
Background Briefing
PNG land scandal
Logging companies in PNG are using special agricultural leases to clear vast tracts of rainforest timber, on the promise of roads and economic development for…
Oct 13, 2012·40m
Background Briefing
Back to Bali
Bali bombing survivor Peter Hughes makes an emotional journey back to the scene of the blasts. On the tenth anniversary he asks, how safe is Bali today and…
Oct 6, 2012·37m
Background Briefing
Saving the masthead
Denial, division and disbelief; key players tell reporter Hagar Cohen what was happening inside Fairfax as the internet ate its newspaper business.
Sep 29, 2012·43m
Background Briefing
The church, the clubs and their pokies
The Catholic church and Catholic clubs are at odds over gambling reforms. The church backs them but the clubs oppose them, insisting they don’t profit from…
Sep 23, 2012·42m
Background Briefing
Flight of the drones
Unmanned aerial vehicles have spread from war zones to toy shops. Now anyone can use a drone to point a camera into your private spaces and privacy laws can’t…
Sep 16, 2012·38m
Background Briefing
Attack of the algorithms
A hacked AP Twitter account claiming two bombs had gone off in the White House wiped out US136 billion from the NY stock exchange. How did this happen? Stan…
Sep 8, 2012·34m
Background Briefing
Attack of the algorithms
Robot traders are dominating stock markets using high speed computer algorithms. Human traders and government regulators can’t keep up, and markets could be…
Sep 8, 2012·34m
Background Briefing
The big binge
More pubs and more bars, open for more hours, more extreme binge drinking, more extreme violence and more hospital admissions! What is being done to stem the…
Aug 25, 2012·49m
Background Briefing
A deadly wait
Heroin addicts wanting to kick the habit have been thwarted by insufferably long waiting lists to join methadone programs…and in Newcastle lives may already…
Aug 19, 2012·37m
Background Briefing
Background Briefing 12 August 2012
Aug 11, 2012·33m
Background Briefing
The super trawler
Tasmania’s fishers are up in arms over the arrival of a Dutch super trawler, the FV Margiris. These boats are blamed around the world for overfishing and…
Aug 11, 2012·33m
Background Briefing
A fair share of the boom
Mineral rich nations are demanding more from the mining companies digging up their resources, and Australia with its mineral resources tax is at the forefront…
Aug 5, 2012·36m
Background Briefing
The law firm, the clients and their legal fees
The inside story of a law firm’s rise and spectacular fall. Keddies was one of the country’s top personal injury law firms until it was found to have grossly…
Jul 21, 2012·44m
Background Briefing
A long line to nowhere
The tuna in the Coral Sea could have saved a fishing fleet from extinction. But those tuna will be off limits in the new marine park and the fishers will have…
Jul 14, 2012·33m
Background Briefing
Construction industry collapses
A spate of construction industry failures has put thousands of sub-contracting businesses at risk and stopped urgent public infrastructure projects. Two state…
Jul 7, 2012·32m
Background Briefing
Libya's power vacuum
The defeat of Gaddafi brought the destruction of corrupt institutions but the power vacuum left by old cronies is being filled by new militias. Armed groups…
Jun 30, 2012·34m
Background Briefing
Boarding house of horrors
A doctor who treated residents at a rundown Sydney boarding house where six mentally ill residents died has been suspended, leaving authorities scrambling for…
Jun 23, 2012·35m
Background Briefing
Dischord: music school in turmoil
One of Australia’s top music schools is in upheaval. Worsening debt and a very public fight over the direction of teaching has plunged the ANU School of Music…
Jun 16, 2012·50m
Background Briefing
Stem cell tourism
Many stem cell therapies are illegal in Australia but that doesn't stop people travelling the world and spending small fortunes on these untested treatments.
Jun 9, 2012·34m
Background Briefing
'We're stopped because we're African'
There’s rising tension between African migrant communities and police in Victoria. The police say high rates of violent crime justify their stop and search…
Jun 2, 2012·35m
Background Briefing
Life and death on the frontline
It’s become who I am. If I didn’t do it anymore, I’d feel myself diminished. Why, despite the risks, do journalists choose to work in conflict zones? Is it…
May 27, 2012·38m
Background Briefing
Residents vs McDonald's
A group of residents in Adelaide have opened a new front against the fast food giant. They’re trying to stop a McDonald’s restaurant opening opposite a school…
May 19, 2012·31m
Background Briefing
Residents vs McDonald's
A group of residents in Adelaide have opened a new front against the fast food giant. They’re trying to stop a McDonald’s restaurant opening opposite a school…
May 19, 2012·31m
Background Briefing
Fatal shore: the deaths of three teenage surf lifesavers
Matthew Barclay, Saxon Bird and Robert Gatenby all died while competing at national surf championship events on the Gold Coast. Their deaths occurred in…
May 12, 2012·45m
Background Briefing
Lead poisoning: a silent epidemic
There’s growing evidence that lead poisoning shaves IQ points in children and has an insidious effect on behaviour. While experts debate safe exposure, a boom…
May 5, 2012·37m
Background Briefing
Blood, sweat and tears in the cage
Punch, kick, knee, elbow, choke, stomp, almost anything goes in a cage fight. It’s brutal, it’s legal, it’s popular and it’s a public safety time-bomb without…
Apr 28, 2012·34m
Background Briefing
Cage fighting and the rise of the UFC
It began as a brutal no-holds-barred experiment and is now a multi-billion dollar fight industry. Cage fighting, or Mixed Martial Arts, is one of the fastest…
Apr 21, 2012·13m
Background Briefing
Clive's world
He’s a billionaire mining magnate, a real estate developer, football club saviour, a medical philanthropist, a professor, a political combatant and…
Apr 14, 2012·39m
Background Briefing
Energy efficiency: Not in Australia mate!
In forty years Australia’s energy efficiency record has barely improved. We’re a land of air con, power hungry industry, and fuel guzzling cars. But…
Apr 7, 2012·38m
Background Briefing
Energy efficiency: how does your house rate?
Want to avoid big power bills in your next home? The federal government wants all homes for sale or rent to have an energy efficiency rating. We already rate…
Mar 31, 2012·38m
Background Briefing
The dark side of the boom
In the 1970s, Joh Bjelke-Petersen told mining companies to build towns or they wouldn't be able to dig out the black gold. That's why towns like Moranbah were…
Mar 25, 2012·34m
Background Briefing
Bosnia's forgotten victims
With ex Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic about to face a war crimes trial in The Hague, one former British commander, Bob Stewart, returns to the…
Mar 17, 2012·50m
Background Briefing
Political micro-targeting
Political parties constantly narrow their campaigns to focus on key marginal seats, and they have to do it more cheaply and efficiently. It’s becoming harder…
Mar 10, 2012·33m
Background Briefing
A sinking feeling in the Torres Strait
On six Torres Strait islands, tidal flooding is washing away everything from building foundations to ancestral graves. Mosquitoes are thriving, with a serious…
Mar 3, 2012·37m
Background Briefing
Range anxiety and the future of the car industry
How far and how fast can electric cars go? That’s what most buyers want to know as the big car-makers talk up battery power and zero emissions. Meanwhile in…
Feb 25, 2012·35m
Background Briefing
Fighting fire with fire
There is fierce scientific debate over whether the policy of annual prescribed burning in Victoria will reduce the risk of another Black Saturday that took so…
Feb 19, 2012·49m
Background Briefing
Orica: how not to deal with a toxic leak
A chemical spill at the Orica plant near Newcastle in NSW put the company in the spotlight and raised serious questions about its safety procedures and what it…
Feb 12, 2012·37m
Background Briefing
When a breast implant maker goes rogue
French-made PIP implants were taken off the market two years ago after a massive fraud was discovered: instead of using medical grade silicon the factory was…
Feb 4, 2012·33m
Background Briefing
Opting out and staying at home
As the new school year begins more than 50,000 Australian children will be kept at home, to be taught by their parents. The homeschooling movement is growing…
Jan 28, 2012·48m
Background Briefing
Mining Afghanistan
As foreign troops withdraw, will foreign miners move in? They’ve known of Afghanistan’s mineral wealth for a century but it hasn’t been safe or easy enough to…
Jan 21, 2012·48m
Background Briefing
Bess Price: welcome to my world
Warlpiri woman Bess Nungarrayi Price gives a personal account of the way violence has ripped apart her family, and others, in Aboriginal communities of Central…
Jan 15, 2012·48m
Background Briefing
Guns are back
Gun clubs report lots of new members, hunting is cool, and handguns are gangland chic. The hundreds of thousands of guns destroyed in buybacks since Port…
Jan 7, 2012·48m
Background Briefing
Boys and the buff culture
'Zyzz' was a ladies man and a puny boy's dream realised. From skinny teenager to rippling Adonis he epitomised a growing obsession with male body culture. His…
Jan 1, 2012·48m
Background Briefing
Don't trust the web
The internet is awash with misinformation, manipulated identities, fake reviews, and dishonest comments. Politicians use astroturfing. So do businesses and…
Dec 24, 2011·48m
Background Briefing
Mining Afghanistan
As foreign troops withdraw, will foreign miners move in? They’ve known of Afghanistan’s mineral wealth for a century but it hasn’t been safe or easy enough to…
Dec 17, 2011·48m
Background Briefing
Occupy: a global moment or a movement?
It started with a bang in Wall Street and spread to over a hundred cities worldwide. But, as the novelty wears off, the tent city occupations are facing their…
Dec 10, 2011·48m
Background Briefing
The great rural health challenge
Rural and remote Australia relies heavily on overseas trained doctors if it can attract a GP at all. Background Briefing looks at how a town can survive when…
Dec 3, 2011·48m
Background Briefing
Riding the sports betting boom
Freedom to advertise and the rise of the mobile app has led to a tripling of sports betting in Australia. The winning odds are now front and centre in the…
Nov 26, 2011·48m
Background Briefing
Guns are back
NSW Police and Customs officials have arrested four people in relation to a gun importation syndicate that they believe has illegally imported between 160 and…
Nov 12, 2011·48m
Background Briefing
Guns are back
University of Sydney research shows that Australia has replaced the number of guns destroyed after the Port Arthur massacre. Background Briefing researched…
Nov 12, 2011·48m
Background Briefing
Qantas and the ghost of Workchoices
Qantas has opened a new industrial relations battlefront. The Labor government's Fair Work laws are being put to the test but there are bigger political…
Nov 5, 2011·48m
Background Briefing
Casualties in the war on people smuggling
The Australian government wants to smash the people smugglers' business model and courts around the country are now dealing with hundreds of the accused. But…
Oct 29, 2011·48m
Background Briefing
Controlling people
Is the world's population out of control? There will be 7 billion people this year and 9 billion by 2050. With demographers, environmentalists and others…
Oct 22, 2011·48m
Background Briefing
A noble cause
Producing new medicines to extend lives and reduce suffering is a noble cause. The marketing of those drugs is often ignoble, with the wining and dining of…
Oct 15, 2011·48m
Background Briefing
Amnesty at 50
In its 50 years Amnesty International has revolutionised human rights campaigning and saved lives. It has also been dogged by quarrels, scandals and…
Oct 8, 2011·48m
Background Briefing
Boys and the buff culture
'Zyzz' was a ladies man and a puny boy's dream realised. From skinny teenager to rippling Adonis he epitomised a growing obsession with male body culture. His…
Oct 2, 2011·48m
Background Briefing
The mobile payments push
Get ready for the next big app attack, urging you to chop up your credit cards and use your mobile phone. You won't have to go to a shop, just point the phone…
Sep 24, 2011·48m
Background Briefing
Don't trust the web
The internet is awash with misinformation, manipulated identities, fake reviews, and dishonest comments. Politicians use astroturfing. So do businesses and…
Sep 17, 2011·48m