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
Summer special: Welfare to worse
Whistle-blowers from inside Australia's lucrative employment services industry are claiming profits are being prioritised over the needs of vulnerable welfare…
- Background Briefing
Summer special: Flight of Fancy
When he rediscovered the elusive night parrot in 2013, John Young became a hero in the bird world. But his reputation is now in tatters after the veracity of…
- Background Briefing
Licence to drill
Sydney hip-hop group OneFour are one of Australia’s most popular new musical acts. A month ago they were on the cusp of making it, with millions of streams…
- Background Briefing
The problem with winning
Australians lose more money gambling than any other country in the world. But what if you found out the odds were stacked against you? Steve Cannane lifts the…
- Background Briefing
'Should have been a wedding, not a funeral'
People are dying in Queensland mines. Seven workers have been killed since July last year and the pressure to act is mounting. Soon, some mining bosses could…
- Background Briefing
"No water, no us"
What happens when we run out of water? That might seem a long way off, but after years of drought, taps are running dry in towns all over central New South…
- Background Briefing
Where to now?
Its been two years since a campaign of brutal violence and mass rape forced almost a million Rohingyas to flee Myanmar. The International Criminal Court has…
- Background Briefing
State of emergency
Extraordinary measures have been ordered across New South Wales. There's 60 fires burning in that one state alone. Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong are facing…
- Background Briefing
Are Australians aiding China's surveillance state?
In the shadow of the Hong Kong protests on university campuses, Australia’s top universities are working with blacklisted Chinese entities involved in…
- Background Briefing
Are Australians aiding China's surveillance state?
In the shadow of the Hong Kong protests on university campuses, Australia's top universities are working with blacklisted Chinese entities involved in…
- Background Briefing
Prepare to burn
It’s been the most devastating September for bushfires in this country on record. Experts are warning of more unprecedented weather events than ever before…
- Background Briefing
Who is burning sacred objects in the outback?
A new wave of Pentecostal missionaries is dividing remote communities in Australia’s north. Some are promoting the idea that traditional Aboriginal culture is…
- Background Briefing
What happens in Surf Club...
Surf life savers hold an almost mythical status as Australian heroes who risk their lives to save others. But these dedicated volunteers say they’re being…
- Background Briefing
Who watches over our judges?
He comes from a family of legal royalty but this judge is attracting controversy. Judge Sandy Street presides over more refugee cases than any other in the…
- Background Briefing
How vaping will make you free
It's mostly illegal to sell nicotine for vaping in Australia, but there are some powerful players who want to change that. The tobacco industry wants smokers…
- Background Briefing
Out of jail, 2 nights to find a home
You’ve just been released from jail in a country town. You’re given two nights in a motel, half a dole check, and one set of clothes. Where do you go from…
- Background Briefing
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
Welfare to worse
Whistle-blowers from inside Australia's lucrative employment services industry are claiming profits are being prioritised over the needs of vulnerable welfare…
- Background Briefing
The Pub Test: why Australia can't stop drinking
Leaked documents show the influence the alcohol industry wields over the federal government’s National Alcohol Strategy. Experts warn this will have dire…
- Background Briefing
Under The Hammer
Some paintings by contemporary Australian artists are worth millions of dollars. But what if what you see isn't always what you get? There are claims the art…
- Background Briefing
The Golden Nugget Affair
The annual Uluru Camel Cup attracts a prize pool of tens of thousands of dollars, but its largely unregulated under NT law. After a champion camel named…
- Background Briefing
"Slaughter" house — the scandal inside ANZ
Porsches and $5 million bonuses, drinking and late night strip clubbing — we go deep into one of Australia’s biggest ever corporate investigations. This is an…
- Background Briefing
Proxy war: The outsiders campaigning for the major parties
This election campaign has involved more than political candidates and parties on the hustings. We’ve seen grassroots community groups, political activist…
- Background Briefing
From bias to brutality: How Australia is failing minority groups
They’ve been spat on, punched in the face, and told to go back to where they came from. Minority groups in Australia insist hate crimes are on the rise since…
- Background Briefing
Shitposting to the Senate: How the alt-right infiltrated Parliament
The global rise of the alt-right movement has caught the attention of politicians and police in Australia. But few could have predicted its followers would…
- Background Briefing
The sexual abuse scandal nobody's talking about
When you place a parent or loved one into a nursing home, you trust they'll be looked after by staff. But sexual abuse in aged care is on the rise and the…
- Background Briefing
How some of Australia's biggest live music shows were funded by a Ponzi scheme
The 2000s were a great time for Australian live music lovers with some of the biggest artists of the decade touring the nation. It was also a time when many of…
- Background Briefing
Flight of fancy: The mysterious case of the night parrot
When he rediscovered the elusive night parrot in 2013, John Young became a hero in the bird world. But his reputation is now in tatters after the veracity of…
- Background Briefing
Haircuts and hate: The rise of Australia's alt-right
On Friday 15 March 2019 an Australian man opened fire on two mosques in Christchurch, killing 50 people and wounding as many. There has been much speculation…
- Background Briefing
This meth we’re in: Businesses profit from residential drug lab contamination fears
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…
- Background Briefing
Inside Australia's segregated hotel rooms
In this episode, we investigate allegations that staff at a popular Alice Springs hotel managed by Australia’s largest hotel group, Accor, have been…
- Background Briefing
Doxxed: Exposing the terrifying new frontier in online abuse
You've heard of online trolls, but what happens when they share your private data, like your contact details, with malicious intent? ABC Life’s Osman Faruqi…
- Background Briefing
What if your day in court lasted just five minutes?
"Bush Court" is based on a simple premise. If you live in a remote Australia, you won't be forced to travel to the city to seek justice. Instead, justice will…
- Background Briefing
Murder on trial: Was a Melbourne woman’s conviction beyond reasonable doubt?
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
Gridlock: Australia’s electricity system buckles as politicians stall on energy policy
Australia's national electricity grid has once again buckled under the pressure of a scorching hot summer. Consumers are furious not only about blackouts but…
- Background Briefing
Haircuts and hate: The rise of Australia's alt-right
In this episode, Alex Mann investigates how Australia's alt-right movement is covertly influencing mainstream politics. He tracks operatives from a secretive…
- Background Briefing
Death in Chinatown: Who's looking after international students?
An alleyway brawl that left a Melbourne schoolboy dead, has raised questions about who’s responsible for keeping international students safe in Australia. Year…
- Background Briefing
Not fare: How taxi licences collapsed in value, destroying lives and livelihoods
After a spate of recent suicides, taxi licence holders and their families are warning of the mounting human toll of deregulating their industry. Since the…
- Background Briefing
The drugs don't work: Patients and paramedics expose Queensland Ambulance Service scandal
Thousands of patients may have been put at risk of exposure to tampered drugs by the Queensland Ambulance Service. One 74-year-old grandmother from Brisbane…
- Background Briefing
Dirty rotten phone calls: The anatomy of a scam
Binary option scams are one of the biggest financial scams in the world right now and Australians are targets. Scammers use flashy websites to trick victims…
- Background Briefing
From verbal abuse to axe murder: The death of Canberra mum Tara Costigan
Three years ago Marcus Rappel murdered 28-year-old Tara Costigan with an axe. The murder continues to confront our definition of domestic violence because…
- Background Briefing
From verbal abuse to axe murder: The death of Canberra mum Tara Costigan
Three years ago Marcus Rappel murdered 28-year-old Tara Costigan with an axe. The murder continues to confront our definition of domestic violence because…
- Background Briefing
The bird and the businessman: A billionaire developer's plan to build on a protected wetland
It’s only 30 kilometres east of Brisbane but the economic gap between Cleveland and the Queensland capital is massive. Now an influential developer wants to…
- Background Briefing
The Implant Files: Global investigation reveals extent of harm caused by medical devices (Part 2)
Depending on who you believe, getting medical devices approved for use in Australia is either too difficult or alarmingly easy. An investigation by Background…
- Background Briefing
The Implant Files: Global investigation reveals extent of harm caused by medical devices (Part 1)
At their best, they save lives. At their worst, they end them. There are more than 57,000 medical devices approved for use in Australia, but how safe are they?…
- Background Briefing
Burning obsession: The fight to stop bushfire arson
Why would someone intentionally start a bushfire? And if authorities knew why, could they stop them? Background Briefing gains rare access to convicted…
- Background Briefing
Slavery in the suburbs: Migrant women abused for dowry
It’s domestic violence with the added threat of deportation. In many South Asian cultures, the bride’s family often pays the groom. But sometimes the demands…
- Background Briefing
Breaking point: Australia under pressure to evacuate sick children from Nauru (Part 2)
The federal government says it's been "quietly" removing children from Nauru "in accordance with our policies", but lawyers in Australia tell a different…
- Background Briefing
Two years of Trump: Is America great again?
He promised to ''drain the swamp'' in Washington, but has Donald Trump kept his word? The upcoming midterm elections are shaping up as a referendum on his…
- Background Briefing
Breaking point: Australia under pressure to evacuate sick children from Nauru (Part 1)
Has the federal government been ignoring a mental health crisis among child refugees and asylum seekers on Nauru? Background Briefing has obtained dozens of…
- Background Briefing
Seeds of doubt: The strawberry punnet whodunit
Across the country, there have been more than 100 reports of needles found inside strawberries picked and packed for public consumption. The contamination…
- Background Briefing
Haircuts and hate: The rise of Australia's alt-right
In this episode, Alex Mann investigates how Australia's alt-right movement is covertly influencing mainstream politics. He tracks operatives from a secretive…
- Background Briefing
More than a fight: Was the death of an Indigenous teenager an accident or murder?
On New Year's Eve, 1983, the driver of a train passing through Kempsey in NSW made a grim discovery. The body of Lewis "Buddy" Kelly was strewn across the…
- Background Briefing
Update: The talented Mr Daly
It was a $20 million investment scheme that saw the retirement savings of more than 100 investors used as a piggy bank for company directors who borrowed funds…
- Background Briefing
The clinic of last resort: Why it's so hard to get a late surgical abortion
They're legal in most states, subject to conditions, so why are women so often denied late surgical abortions? In this episode, Hagar Cohen goes inside the…
- Background Briefing
Burning down the house: The Liberal Party leadership crisis
We now have our seventh prime minister in 10 years. What the hell is going on? This week, Background Briefing brings you a three-part special on the Liberal…
- Background Briefing
The talented Mr Daly: The story of a businessman, 150 investors, and a $20 million opportunity
Peter Daly projects confidence and success. He wears gold rings, gold cufflinks, and a gold watch. The market, he says, is his backyard and he knows it "damn…
- Background Briefing
Notes on a scandal: Leaked documents expose hospital’s deadly failures
Jaimie Byrne was supposed to be checked by nurses every 15 to 30 minutes while he was sleeping at Coffs Harbour Hospital in NSW on July 5, 2014. But the…
- Background Briefing
Russia, If You're Listening: Paul Manafort On Trial
Former Trump Campaign Manager Paul Manafort is the subject of the first trial of the Mueller investigation, which is underway in Alexandria, Virginia. Despite…
- Background Briefing
Not fare: How taxi licences collapsed in value, destroying lives and livelihoods
After a spate of recent suicides, taxi licence holders and their families are warning of the mounting human toll of deregulating their industry. Since the…