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 Briefing
The killer we've invited into the lounge room
When winter arrives there's nothing like curling up in front of a fire heater with a glass of wine. But there's something disturbing in this cosy picture. As…
- Background Briefing
How Australians are escaping India's Covid catastrophe
Thousands of Australians went to India back when it seemed like coronavirus was under control. Some went to care for elderly parents. But, as Alex Mann…
- Background Briefing
The rural stoush fuelled by our chicken meat obsession
As Australians eat more and more chicken, we need to find places to raise the animals. But as broiler sheds pop up across rural Victoria, the neighbours are…
- Background Briefing
The memo that erased a scandal
Ballarat orphanage superintendent Hylton Sedgman was due to face nine child abuse charges. Buried in a 1964 file is the reason he never stood trial. Charlotte…
- Background Briefing
The Archbishop, the luxury pad, and the COVID-ravaged aged care home
It was the site of Australia's deadliest coronavirus outbreak. This week, Ashlynne McGhee investigates how Melbourne's St Basil's Homes for the Aged has been…
- Background Briefing
The hidden park of last resort
It’s one of the last affordable caravan parks near Sydney's CBD where people can actually make a home. Many of the residents were driven here in one of life's…
- Background Briefing
The Base Tapes | Part 2
In the second and final episode of his investigation, Alex Mann tracks down the two youngest candidates who applied to join the neo-Nazi group and tries to…
- Background Briefing
The Base Tapes | Part 1
Secret recordings reveal how a global white supremacist terror group dedicated to inciting a race war recruited young Australian men. Alex Mann investigates.
- Background Briefing
The small town torn apart by big bets
Peter and Kath were investors in a secret punters' club that turned out to be a multi-million dollar scam. When the kingpin pleaded guilty, there were nearly…
- Background Briefing
The place where people mysteriously disappear
Warren Meyer was a keen bushwalker who always came prepared for a hike. When he vanished in the wild terrain of the Yarra Ranges, police were baffled. Ashlynne…
- Background Briefing
The chilling secrets of a Melbourne guru
For decades people have flocked to a bucolic ashram in one of Melbourne’s most exclusive suburbs to hear Russell Kruckman spin his folksy brand of meditation…
- Background Briefing
A nearby nurse and the firefighter left to wait in agony
Volunteer firefighter Rodney O'Keeffe survived a fire tornado, but it left him with broken ribs and severe burns. A mere 800 metres away, there was a remote…
- Background Briefing
The fight to stop a tiny battery from killing kids
Andrea and Allison formed an unlikely friendship after their daughters died in remarkably similar circumstances. Annie Gaffney investigates how they turned…
- Background Briefing
The scientists and shamans of psychedelic retreats
There's a landmark project underway in Melbourne to find out whether psilocybin - the hallucinogenic compound in magic mushrooms - can be used to improve…
- Background Briefing
Summer Season: how one school failed its students
Kimberly's sunny, athletic and inquisitive about everything. But for years she harboured terrible secrets about what happened to her. This week, Janine…
- Background Briefing
Summer Season: This judge’s unfair decisions upended people’s lives. What can be done about it?
These Australians were denied a fair hearing by one controversial judge. Now, for the first time, they're speaking out about their experiences. Hagar Cohen…
- Background Briefing
Summer Season: He wanted an ambulance. He got a police "dog box".
Tristan was a kind and gentle 23-year-old surfer from Byron Bay. One night he suffered a drug-induced psychotic episode. And ended up driven to hospital in a…
- Background Briefing
Summer season: Inside the brazen tax scam where the homeless are made company directors
It's a long-running ‘dummy director’ scam that’s siphoned tens of millions of dollars from workers, small businesses and the taxpayer.In Victoria, a small…
- Background Briefing
Buyer Wanted - Mothballed Oil Rig
Did you know you're the lucky operator of a rusty oil rig floating in the Timor Sea? You, along with 25-odd-million others, that is. This week, reporter Alex…
- Background Briefing
The billion-dollar sports industry that can't keep up with the cheats
It's got audiences bigger than the Superbowl. Its star players earn more for a single tournament than the winner of the Australian Open. Mario Christodoulou…
- Background Briefing
450 days trapped on a cargo ship
Ronbert has sailed into bustling ports all over the world. But he can't get home or even set foot on dry land. Geoff Thompson investigates how the closure of…
- Background Briefing
How contact tracers confront lies on the COVID frontline
They helped stamp out coronavirus by relying on human intelligence. But as Rachael Brown discovered, there was a weakness in the system. Sometimes people can't…
Background BriefingIntroducing: Thin Black Line
On a spring afternoon in Brisbane's Musgrave Park, 18-year-old traditional dancer and amateur boxer Daniel Yock is drinking with his mates. But when a police…
- Background Briefing
The Ponzi scheme that preyed on faith
Bhavesh was in trouble. His wife had just suffered three heart attacks and he couldn't afford treatment. So he turned to trusted members of his spiritual…
- Background Briefing
Welcome to Tent City, the underside of WA's coronavirus success story
The thin walls of Neville Riley’s makeshift tent do little to block the constant sound of passing cars and trains. And if he was living in a different city…
- Background Briefing
A horrific playground incident: how one school failed its students
Kimberly's sunny, athletic and inquisitive about everything. But for years she harboured terrible secrets about what happened to her. This week, Janine…
- Background Briefing
Are these two scholars really a threat to Australia's security?
One's a former translator for Bob Hawke, the other loves Henry Lawson's poetry. So when Professor Chen Hong and Li Jianjun got caught up in a police…
- Background Briefing
How banks help criminals get rich: Part 2
The FINCEN Files have revealed how Australian businesses are involved suspicious transactions worth billions of dollars.This week, Mario Christodoulou follows…
- Background Briefing
How banks help criminals get rich
An unprecedented leak of secret US Government reports has revealed how two trillion dollars of suspected dirty money snakes around the globe. This week on…
- Background Briefing
Assange's extradition: what's really at stake?
Human rights advocates describe the pursuit of the Wikileaks founder as "a threat to global media freedom". But when a magistrate decides whether he'll be…
- Background Briefing
Response from Falun Dafa Association of Australia
In this podcast extra, Hagar Cohen interviews John Deller from the Falun Dafa Association of Australia about the allegations raised in the series.
- Background Briefing
The Power of Falun Gong, Part 3
Fledgling media organisations affiliated with Falun Gong have formed strange alliances with far right movements overseas. But what about here in Australia?…
- Background Briefing
The Power of Falun Gong, Part 2
Secluded in dense forest, two hours north of New York City, there's a hidden headquarters for a new religious order. This otherworldly place is called Dragon…
- Background Briefing
The Power of Falun Gong, Part 1
When you think of Falun Gong – you might think of quiet groups meditating or silently protesting in city parks. But a joint investigation by Background…
- Background Briefing
No one told these country mums why their babies died
Claire doesn't know if her daughter's death could have been prevented - and she's not alone. Today, babies are more likely to be stillborn in Australia's…
- Background Briefing
Meet the debt monster
In little over two months' time, the support payments keeping millions of Australians afloat through the pandemic are due to end. Banks' deferrals on mortgage…
- Background Briefing
Why was this woman sent to a men's prison?
As she entered one of Australia's largest male prisons, Mara Ellis was strip-searched by four prison guards: two men and two women. She says it was the last…
- Background Briefing
The rallying cry heard the world over
Could Australia's Black Lives Matter movement bring about real world change? Jared Goyette, Bridget Brennan and Allan Clarke trace how the brutal death of…
- Background Briefing
Who seeks to profit from the trauma of abuse survivors?
Uncle Justin has waited a long time for an acknowledgement that he has survived institutional child sexual abuse. When the National Redress Scheme was…
- Background Briefing
Why Australia's spies think the far right could find a foothold during coronavirus
Since Australia's coronavirus shutdown began, there's been a spike in reports of racist attacks, where people are targeted because they just happen to look…
- Background Briefing
The controversial push to rebrand raw milk
Advocates of raw milk say its safe for people to drink the stuff, so long as dairies take proper precautions. But Australian health authorities are wary about…
- Background Briefing
How were the kids in this town contaminated?
For children in Port Pirie there is no 10 second rule. When you grow up in a “lead town” eating off the floor is forbidden, and could be harmful to your…
- Background Briefing
Having a baby alone: How the pandemic has changed how we give birth
Pregnancies and births around the world have been radically changed by the spread of COVID-19. Background Briefing reporter Katherine Gregory is 39 weeks…
- Background Briefing
Drive-by dinners: Food relief in the time of Corona
Social distancing measures have robbed many charities of the human connection so crucial to their already vulnerable clients. But, as our reporter Geoff…
- Background Briefing
Prison outbreak: Prisoners released to protect them from COVID-19
Australian prison operators say they're well equipped to deal with a possible COVID-19 outbreak inside their walls. But inmates claim unhygienic conditions are…
- Background Briefing
Hotel Corona: How the pandemic could fix homelessness
People experiencing homelessness are being moved from the street and shelters into four-star hotels. The radical plan is meant to protect them from the…
- Background Briefing
Who's profiting from the pandemic?
The coronavirus pandemic is causing pain and suffering the world over, but then there are always those who never let a good crisis go to waste. Some are…
- Background Briefing
'People will die': Country hospital fears it won't cope with coronavirus
What does it take to prepare for a pandemic? Many hospitals around the world are already overwhelmed by patients infected with COVID-19. Australian doctors and…
- Background Briefing
How we're getting through this
Coronavirus is changing the way the entire human race lives.Emergency workers are scrambling together contingency plans, fearing hospitals could soon be…
- Background Briefing
He wanted an ambulance. He got a police "dog box".
Tristan was a kind and gentle 23-year-old surfer from Byron Bay. One night he suffered a drug-induced psychotic episode. And ended up driven to hospital in a…
- Background Briefing
'If I can't get my house fixed, I'm homeless'
Even after the black summer Australians have just endured, it's not bushfires that's keeping the nation's insurers awake at night. Climate change is bringing…
- Background Briefing
How fracking could threaten Australia's Paris target
The Morrison Government claims Australia will meet its emissions targets "in a canter". It points to Australia's status as the world's largest LNG exporter to…
- Background Briefing
Inside the brazen tax scam where the homeless are made company directors
It's a long-running ‘dummy director’ scam that’s siphoned tens of millions of dollars from workers, small businesses and the taxpayer.In Victoria, a small…
- Background Briefing
This predator targeted victims on Tinder for years. Why wasn’t he stopped sooner?
Glenn Hartland is a serial rapist who lured four Melbourne women on Tinder. His victims say he continued to use dating apps while on bail. How did the police…
- Background Briefing
This judge’s unfair decisions upended people’s lives. What can be done about it?
These Australians were denied a fair hearing by one controversial judge. Now, for the first time, they're speaking out about their experiences. Hagar Cohen…
- Background Briefing
Summer special: Murder on trial
In 2011, Boronika Hothnyang was accused of fatally stabbing her best friend, William Awu, directly in the heart. But when police arrived at the scene of the…
- Background Briefing
Summer special: The Golden Nugget Affair
The annual Uluru Camel Cup attracts a prize pool of tens of thousands of dollars, but is largely unregulated under NT law. After a champion camel named “Golden…
- Background Briefing
Summer special: The Birdman of Surry Hills
From piles of rubbish to leaking sewers, rats, and gas leaks. Pierre the Birdman is on a one-man mission to save his public housing block -- but he doesn’t own…
- Background Briefing
Summer special: This meth we’re in
Jacki Whittaker thought one of the bedrooms in her Melbourne rental home smelt like "cat piss". But the real culprit was something far more sinister. The…