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
Rough justice: Can the NT keep its kids safe?
The shocking rape of a two-year-old girl in the Northern Territory this February exposed a child protection system in crisis. Some caseworkers say the…
- Background Briefing
They're still victims: Redress scheme may reject abuse survivors who turned to crime
There is an ethical dilemma confronting the national redress scheme for survivors of child sexual abuse. Should applicants who have themselves committed…
- Background Briefing
When the dust settles: Home renovators, the next wave of asbestos-related deaths
Asbestos continues to kill more people than car accidents every year in Australia. Once seen as a wondrous building material it remains in millions of homes in…
- 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
Remembering Liz Jackson
Last week, Australian journalism lost one of its greats. Liz Jackson, who won multiple Walkley awards, is perhaps best known for her work at Four Corners, but…
- Background Briefing
Carers who kill
Almost one person with a disability is killed by their carer every three months in Australia. For the first time, Background Briefing has calculated this…
- Background Briefing
Changing habits: Regional city calls for drug and crime rethink
A community in regional NSW is pushing for a different approach to how it handles drug-related crime. While politicians have promised a drug court to divert…
- Background Briefing
Unravel: Blood on the Tracks
30 years after a young Aboriginal boy was found dead on the train tracks in the NSW town of Tamworth, the cause of his death remains a mystery. After a botched…
- Background Briefing
Macquarie'd - The advice scandal at Australia's fifth-largest bank
Former Macquarie Bank clients are accusing the institution of pushing them into higher risk trading categories with fewer protections. Thousands of customers…
- Background Briefing
Introducing ... Russia If You're Listening
The oligarchs hold the power and the money in Russia. So who are they and why does your average Russian billionaire care about who sits in The White House?…
- Background Briefing
Fentanyl: A national emergency (part 2)
Paramedics across Australia are stealing lethal opioids to cope with workplace trauma. Freedom of Information documents reveal nearly 100 investigations into…
- Background Briefing
Fentanyl: A national emergency (part 1)
Alarming numbers of Australians are dying from fentanyl overdoses at increasing rates and undercover recordings show just how easy it is to get it. A NSW…
- Background Briefing
Best laid plans update: The Senate votes
The Australian Senate passed an amendment to the Murray-Darling Basin Plan this week. This means that remaining water recovery, more than 600 billion litres…
- Background Briefing
Best laid plans: The Murray-Darling Basin in crisis (Part 2)
The Federal Senate is due to vote on major changes to the Murray-Darling Basin Plan– if it passes, it will effectively end further water recovery for the…
- Background Briefing
Best laid plans: The Murray-Darling Basin in crisis (Part 1)
Australia is halfway into the most expensive environmental program ever mounted—the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.
- Background Briefing
Part 2: Is that a steroid in my supplement?
More Australians use sports supplements than almost any other country – but do we know what’s in them? triple j reporter James Purtill and Alex Mann…
- Background Briefing
Part 1: Is that a steroid in my supplement?
Organised criminals and heavy steroid users are importing raw powders to manufacture the drugs in their own backyard. Our two part program shows that while…
- Background Briefing
Paying for their sins
Background Briefing investigates the stretched finances of the Anglican Church. The Newcastle Diocese is struggling to find the money to pay victims of child…
- Background Briefing
A standard deviation: Sexual harassment in Australian science
Sexual harassment allegations against one of Australia’s most esteemed statisticians are forcing the country's science organisations to confront the issue…
- 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
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
Introducing ... The Signal
ABC has a new daily podcast. It’s called The Signal, and it's here to sort the news from the noise. To get a new episode of The Signal every morning, search…
- 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
Stash pad: How criminals are laundering their dirty cash in Australian real estate
International experts are warning that Australia is one of the most attractive destinations to launder money through real estate. Criminals from all over the…
- Background Briefing
Copping it: The cost of complaining when you're in the police
Each year, NSW Police officers lodge around 200 harassment complaints against their own colleagues. About a quarter of those are for sex-based harassment. But…
- Background Briefing
The quiet epidemic: patients speak up about the forgotten cancers
They're responsible for half of all cancer-related deaths in Australia, but receive only a small amount of research funding. As a result, rare and less common…
- Background Briefing
Ear Hustle: Left Behind
How do inmates with profoundly long sentences cope with their realities, and maintain a sense of hope and well-being as the years pass?
- Background Briefing
Introducing Ear Hustle
How do you make a podcast inside prison? Ear Hustle's Nigel Poor talks risky stories, Australian listeners and toilet humour.
- Background Briefing
How did Westpac's e-waste end up on the worst dump in the world?
Summer series: A computer monitor from St George Bank, destined for recycling in Australia, is found on a toxic e-waste dump in west Africa, being pulled apart…
- Background Briefing
The Base: Pine Gap's role in US Warfighting
Summer series: Top-secret documents exclusively obtained by Background Briefing reveal the extent to which Australia is assisting the United States military in…
- Background Briefing
No place for paedophiles
Summer series: Prisons and aged care providers are sounding the alarm over the growing number of elderly convicted sex offenders and other serious criminals…
- Background Briefing
Fire ant threat: Mismanagement of Australia’s eradication effort
Whistleblowers accuse the agency in charge of the largest pest eradication effort in Australia’s history of mismanagement.
- Background Briefing
Prescription killer: Australia's imminent fentanyl epidemic
New exclusive figures show alarming numbers of Australians are dying from fentanyl overdoses at increasing rate.
- Background Briefing
Burning obsession: The fight to stop bushfire arson
Why do bushfire arsonists commit their crimes? Alex Mann investigates.
- Background Briefing
Katherine Hospital: Back from the brink
Repeat: How Katherine Hospital turned its fortunes around and the lessons to be learned.
- Background Briefing
The toughest schools: Walgett's education experiment
Can a failing school be turned around with money and community engagement? Brendan King investigates.
- Background Briefing
Betting on bitcoin: The risky world of cryptocurrency
The technology behind cryptocurrency could revolutionise our financial system—but is this unregulated innovation worth the risk?
- Background Briefing
Fiji silenced part 2: Controlling the message
First-hand accounts and leaked documents reveal the extent of the Fijian government’s control over the media and public service, and why freedom of the press…
- Background Briefing
Fiji silenced part 1: China's secret mission exposed
Why did Chinese police enter Fiji and deport 77 of their own citizens? Hagar Cohen investigates.
- Background Briefing
Mafia on the move: How the 'ndrangheta came to Australia
A mafia member who turned informant warns that the ‘ndrangheta, or Calabrian mafia, have an organised presence in Australia. Connie Agius reports.
- Background Briefing
Drug justice: The Duterte solution
Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs has seen hundreds of thousands imprisoned and many killed. Ginny Stein reports.
- Background Briefing
No place for paedophiles
Prisons and aged care providers are sounding the alarm over the growing number of elderly convicted sex offenders and other serious criminals, and the lack of…
- Background Briefing
A whisky business
It was a whisky investment scheme marketed by a famous cricketer and a fast yacht, but it turned into an almighty hangover, with hundreds left wondering where…
- Background Briefing
South Sudan: a failure to act
When local and international aid workers came under attack in South Sudan's capital, why did UN peacekeepers just over a kilometre away fail to respond?
- Background Briefing
Critical failure: the preventable deaths that keep happening in hospitals
How a series of blunders and the death of an 18-year-old girl have fed a wave of anger over the treatment of suicidal patients in hospitals. Tim Roxburgh…
Background BriefingThe Base: Pine Gap's role in US Warfighting
Top-secret documents exclusively obtained by Background Briefing reveal the extent to which Australia is assisting the United States military in conflicts…
- Background Briefing
Shot to pieces: How the Adler fight threatens our national gun laws
Could the political fight over the Adler unravel Australia’s national gun laws? Paddy Manning reports.
Background BriefingRape shaming: Why some women are naming their alleged attackers online
Women who say the police have failed to properly investigate their rape cases are taking matters into their own hands, and they have police worried. Hagar…
- Background Briefing
Nowhere to go: Disability housing sell-off sparks fears for vulnerable
A radical move to privatise government group homes for people with disability is underway in NSW ahead of the introduction of the National Disability Insurance…
- Background Briefing
Europe's drug wars
Twenty years after the assassination of Irish crime reporter Veronica Guerin, gangland killings continue in Dublin. The gangs have links across Europe, where…
- Background Briefing
Drill and fill: dentists up in arms over the risks of corporate dentistry
As health insurance companies and corporate chains buy up surgeries, some dentists say benchmarks and bonuses are influencing the type of treatment you get…
- Background Briefing
Shadows of the Sheikh: how an Adelaide Imam with a mysterious past became a media star
He warns we're facing an infestation of radical clerics, and he's called for Islamic schools to be shut down. But Mohammed Tawhidi has a mysterious history…
- Background Briefing
Under the radar: how the global gambling industry is encroaching on amateur sport
The global gambling industry is moving in on Australian amateur sport, offering live odds and exotic bets for offshore gamblers on small-time matches that…
- Background Briefing
Cyber insecurity: the skills shortage exposing Australia to attack
Australian governments and businesses have finally woken up to the scale of the cyber threats we face. But in the race to snap up computer security experts, we…
- Background Briefing
On deadline: countdown to crunchtime for newspapers
Newspapers are slashing jobs, and the Senate has launched an inquiry into the future of journalism. But amidst the gloom, some ex-Fairfax journalists are…
- Background Briefing
The cost of a kidney
It's a long wait to receive a kidney transplant if you're part of an ethnic minority in the UK. Some patients are so desperate, they're travelling to countries…
- Background Briefing
A failure to care: the Oakden nursing home
How did Oakden, a state and commonwealth funded home for the elderly, fail its vulnerable patients and their families? Christine El-Khoury investigates.
- Background Briefing
WestConnex: good debt or bad debt?
As the government talks up its commitment to infrastructure, some experts are querying whether the nation’s biggest transport project will solve the problem it…
- Background Briefing
Machetes, migrants, and misinformation: why Africans are copping the blame for Melbourne crime wave
Should young migrants be deported if they commit a criminal offence? A new federal inquiry is considering just this, and in the frame are Sudanese youth…