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Background Briefing

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Background Briefing brings you true stories not everyone will want you to hear.

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40:45

A nearby nurse and the firefighter left to wait in agony

Background Briefing ·

2021/02/20

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 area nurse desperately trying to reach him. Jess Davis investigates why she couldn't.

39:45

The fight to stop a tiny battery from killing kids

Background Briefing ·

2021/02/13

Andrea and Allison formed an unlikely friendship after their daughters died in remarkably similar circumstances.Annie Gaffney investigates how they turned their grief into action to prevent that kind of tragedy from happening again.

45:00

The scientists and shamans of psychedelic retreats

Background Briefing ·

2021/02/06

There's a landmark project underway in Melbourne to find out whether psilocybin - the hallucinogenic compound in magic mushrooms - can be used to improve end-of-life experiences.But many Australians have already turned to the underground because they're convinced psychedelics improve their mental health.Geoff Thompson investigates whether it's worth all the risks.

39:55

Summer Season: how one school failed its students

Background Briefing ·

2021/01/02

Kimberly's sunny, athletic and inquisitive about everything. But for years she harboured terrible secrets about what happened to her. This week, Janine Fitzpatrick investigates why her school failed to heed credible warnings that she was in danger.This is a repeat of a program that aired in October 2020.

41:03

Summer Season: This judge’s unfair decisions upended...

Background Briefing ·

2020/12/26

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 investigates what happens when the behaviour of a judge inside a courtroom is called into question.This is a repeat of a program that aired in February 2020.

41:08

Summer Season: He wanted an ambulance. He got a...

Background Briefing ·

2020/12/19

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 small steel cage.Police say it is probably the worst place he could be.Tristan later died in hospital.Mario Christodoulou investigates the series of tragic events that led to Tristan's death that raise questions about how emergency services treat young drug-affected people in New South Wales.This is a repeat of a program that

39:13

Summer season: Inside the brazen tax scam where the...

Background Briefing ·

2020/12/12

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 group of accountants spent 15 years signing on drug users and homeless Australians to help their clients cheat the system.Reporter Dan Oakes investigates how this was allowed to go on for so long.This is a repeat of a program that aired in February 2020.

34:46

Buyer Wanted - Mothballed Oil Rig

Background Briefing ·

2020/12/05

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 Mann investigates why Australian taxpayers are forking out four million dollars a month for this facility, some 550km off the coast of Darwin.

35:27

The billion-dollar sports industry that can't keep up...

Background Briefing ·

2020/11/28

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 investigates how esports became such a success with the match-fixers too.

39:06

450 days trapped on a cargo ship

Background Briefing ·

2020/11/21

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 borders has left 400,000 seafarers stuck on ships and what can be done to save them.

40:57

How contact tracers confront lies on the COVID frontline

Background Briefing ·

2020/11/14

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 be trusted.

07:10

Introducing: Thin Black Line

Background Briefing ·

2020/11/07

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 van arrives, the mood suddenly changes, triggering a dramatic chain of events. Presented by Allan Clarke, Thin Black Line is a deep dive into what happened that day — according to the one eyewitness who saw it all unfold, speaking publicly for the first time in almost three decades.

37:04

The Ponzi scheme that preyed on faith

Background Briefing ·

2020/10/31

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 community for help.But as reporter Meghna Bali discovers, Bhavesh soon started getting death threats instead, and he found himself at the wrong end of one of Australia's biggest cryptocurrency Ponzi schemes.

33:38

Welcome to Tent City, the underside of WA's...

Background Briefing ·

2020/10/24

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 when COVID-19 hit Australia, chances are Neville would have been given emergency accommodation months ago. This week, Alex Mann investigates whether a historic opportunity to address homelessness in Western Australia has been lost.

39:42

A horrific playground incident: how one school failed...

Background Briefing ·

2020/10/17

38:17

Are these two scholars really a threat to Australia's...

Background Briefing ·

2020/10/10

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 investigation into foreign influence, many of their colleagues expressed surprise. This week, Hagar Cohen investigates why ASIO declared them to be a potential risk to Australia.

36:05

How banks help criminals get rich: Part 2

Background Briefing ·

2020/10/03

The FINCEN Files have revealed how Australian businesses are involved suspicious transactions worth billions of dollars.This week, Mario Christodoulou follows the money trail home to downtown Sydney and investigates why the system designed to stop it often fails.

31:04

How banks help criminals get rich

Background Briefing ·

2020/09/26

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, Mario Christodoulou shows how terrorists and mobsters smuggle staggering sums of money through some of the world's largest banks - and often get away with it.This never-before-told story is the culmination of a 16-month-long investigation by 400 journalists for the International Consortium of Investigative

37:12

Assange's extradition: what's really at stake?

Background Briefing ·

2020/09/12

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 extradited to the United States, how much will the public's right to know actually matter?This week on Background Briefing, Meghna Bali goes inside his quest for freedom and uncovers never-before-told stories.

05:06

Response from Falun Dafa Association of Australia

Background Briefing ·

2020/08/24

In this podcast extra, Hagar Cohen interviews John Deller from the Falun Dafa Association of Australia about the allegations raised in the series.

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