Background Briefing

Background Briefing episodes:

• 04.18.2024

  A mother's message and the hospital that didn't want to hear it

  A woman has lost the ability to speak and is forced to communicate by blinking. From her hospital bed she tries to blink out a request, but hospital staff refuse to help. Background Briefing can reveal that similar situations are playing...

  
• 04.11.2024

  Tears, tea and bloodshed — can violent men ever change?

  This week reporter and Dharawal woman Brooke Fryer goes inside a program that's helping violent men turn their lives around.

  
• 04.05.2024

  Finding Jean Nassif

  He left a trail of defect-riddled apartment buildings across Sydney and debts exceeding $600m to his creditors. Police have issued a warrant for his arrest. The NSW Premier has even offered to pay for his flight back to Australia. This...

  
• 03.28.2024

  Dancing with Bulls

  Ruby's barely a teenager, and already she's become a champion bull rider. She's also had eight concussions and multiple brain bleeds. Reporter Tynan King investigates how this extreme sport became her obsession — even as it threatens her life.

  
• 03.21.2024

  04 Stop and Search | The Botched Backyard Operation

  There are only two witnesses to Brad Balzan's final moments: the two officers who chased him into his backyard. But their accounts of what happened don't match up.

  
• 03.13.2024

  03 Stop and Search | The Numbers Game

  As the investigation into Bradley Balzan's death continues, serious questions are raised about how the country’s largest police force uses its search powers.

  
• 03.06.2024

  02 Stop and Search | Last Moments Before Gunshots

  Brad Balzan is shot dead in his own backyard after a police encounter goes wrong. In episode two of Stop and Search, a new mini-series by Background Briefing, reporter Paul Farrell asks why was he running away, and why did the...

  
• 02.29.2024

  01 Stop and Search | Where's Brad?

  A 20-year-old is chased by four plain-clothes police officers into his western Sydney backyard. But he hasn't committed a crime. He hasn't even done anything wrong. He's shot twice, and then dies. In a special miniseries by Background Briefing, the...

  
• 02.22.2024

  What's the price of a freebirth?

  There are women choosing to “freebirth” completely outside the medical system.

  
• 02.15.2024

  Meet the AI insiders who say it’s time to ‘accelerate or die’

  They have anonymous leaders, manifestos, and even a flag with a snake on it.

  
• 02.08.2024

  'They use us': The Balinese villagers taking on Russian-backed developers

  ‘Cities’ are popping up across Bali’s spiritual heartland. Can villagers from Ubud hold back a tsunami of foreign money and preserve the island's culture?

  
• 02.01.2024

  Background Briefing presents... Global Roaming

  Background Briefing returns to your pod feeds next week.

  
• 12.14.2023

  Summer Season: Prisoner of the State

  In a nursing home lives an elderly man who is being held against his will. We can’t tell you his name. We can’t tell you his age. We can’t even use his real voice, or the voice of anyone involved in...

  
• 12.14.2023

  Summer Season: Remy was 12 when she became a drug dealer

  As a teenager, Remy learnt to survive by hustling on the streets of Parramatta. Then she hit the bigtime. Reporter Mahmood Fazal investigates what life is like on the other side of the war on drugs.

  
• 12.14.2023

  Summer Season: False Witness

  Reporter Heidi Davoren provides an extraordinary insight into a parenting dispute, where a mother and father come together after a Family Court psychologist harmed their family.

  
• 12.14.2023

  Summer Season: Darcey and Chloe Part 01 - How the system failed to save two baby girls

  Queensland authorities failed to heed multiple serious warnings that a young pair of sisters were in danger, before it was too late. Their grieving family is now desperate to understand why. Reporter Alexandra Blucher investigates.

  
• 12.14.2023

  Summer Season: Darcey and Chloe Part 02 - How the system failed to save two baby girls

  When two infants die after being left inside a hot car, their family seek answers to how this could have happened. Reporter Alexandra Blucher tracks down a child safety officer involved in their case, and hears why she believes the girls' deaths could have...

  
• 12.14.2023

  Summer Season: The Whistleblower who helped catch a paedophile politican

  After an electoral officer helped police arrest a popular state minister, her life began to unravel.

  
• 12.14.2023

  Summer Season: The whistleblower who exposed Australia’s secretive offshore detention system

  "Simone" arrived on a remote island to help asylum seekers. But she witnessed something there that convinced her to leak over 2000 documents. Reporters Paul Farrell and Maddison Conaughton investigate what happened.

  
• 12.14.2023

  Summer Season: An aspiring doctor from the 'burbs takes on medical schools for elitism

  From humble beginnings, Fahad faced hurdles entering medical school. Now, he fights for equal access to medical education. Marty Smiley reports.

  
• 12.07.2023

  A one-man consulate and a mysterious list: How to get out of Gaza

  Father-of-three Ayman Dhlan started a WhatsApp group to help Australians and their families get out of war-torn Gaza. Now he can barely put his phone down.

  
• 11.30.2023

  Hitler, Stalin and Shirley Temple lived in the Australian outback

  It might surprise you to learn that the names of pop stars and fascist dictators have been passed down to generations of Indigenous Australians. Reporter Erin Parke heads to the remote Kimberley to meet a man named Bing Crosby, and find...

  
• 11.26.2023

  Background Briefing Presents: Conviction by RNZ

  There's a gripping new series by our friends across the ditch at RNZ.

  
• 11.23.2023

  An aspiring doctor from the 'burbs takes on medical schools for elitism

  From humble beginnings, Fahad faced hurdles entering medical school. Now, he fights for equal access to medical education.

  
• 11.16.2023

  How an ADHD diagnosis was the start of Natalia’s life unravelling

  Natalia had a job at a prestigious university, $120,000 in the bank, a loving partner, and shared custody of her two sons. Then one day, a little over a year later, she woke up in a psychiatric hospital, where doctors...

  
• 11.09.2023

  The whistleblowers who stared down threats from Australia's biggest bank

  How the Commonwealth Bank tried to stop a royal commission by using dirt files, intimidation, threats and surveillance against whistleblowers and journalists.

  
• 11.02.2023

  The whistleblower who believed his employer was covering up an oil spill

  Three dead dolphins turn up in an oil spill.

  
• 10.26.2023

  The whistleblower who exposed Australia’s secretive offshore detention system

  "Simone" arrived on a remote island to help asylum seekers. But she witnessed something there that convinced her to leak over 2000 documents. Reporters Paul Farrell and Maddison Conaughton investigate what happened.

  
• 10.19.2023

  The Whistleblower who brought down Australia's Dr Death

  When patients start unexpectedly dying at a regional hospital, nurse Toni Hoffman takes a big risk to blow the whistle on a negligent surgeon.

  
• 10.12.2023

  The Whistleblower who captured the nation — and the man who unmasked her as a fraud

  Kathy Jackson was once heralded as a revolutionary who shone a bright spotlight on union corruption but she too was later found to be a fraudster who had misappropriated hundreds of thousands of dollars in union members' money. So who was...

  
• 10.05.2023

  The Whistleblower who helped catch a paedophile politican

  After an electoral officer helped police arrest a popular state minister, her life began to unravel.

  
• 10.03.2023

  INTRODUCING — 'The Whistleblowers', a new series from Background Briefing

  In this 6-part series presented by Adele Ferguson, the Background Briefing team brings you the untold stories of ordinary Australians who helped bring some of Australia’s biggest and dirtiest scandals to light.

  
• 08.10.2023

  Can a rape trial be a positive experience?

  Two years ago, Meagan complained to the ABC that our coverage of sexual assault cases was too negative, and it didn't reflect her personal experience.

  
• 08.03.2023

  03 | The outland or the cage

  Just after midnight, Marty woke to find three young intruders in his bedroom. Then they started talking to him. He'd now become one of the hundreds of victims of crime in Mount Isa each year. This is the final episode looking at the...

  
• 07.27.2023

  02 | The outland or the cage

  "Locked down for hours and hours": Jaxon explains what life is like inside a juvenile detention centre.

  
• 07.21.2023

  01 | The outland or the cage

  Jaxon stole a car at age 10. Six years later, the Mount Isa teen has a decision to make.

  
• 07.13.2023

  'What's your p(doom)?' Why AI experts are calculating our doomsday odds

  A growing number of AI industry insiders are guessing at the probability that Artificial Intelligence will lead to a catastrophic scenario for humanity, and calculating their ‘p(doom)’.

  
• 07.06.2023

  The little-known religious code ruling many major public hospitals

  Did you know that some of Australia’s largest public hospitals are run according to a religious code of ethics?

  
• 06.29.2023

  Fashion victims

  Kym Ellery, the founder of collapsed Australian fashion label Ellery Land, tells reporter Rachael Brown that business collapses are sometimes the price of working in the fashion industry.

  
• 06.22.2023

  Inside the battle to keep cocaine out of Australia

  Reporters Ty King and Mayeta Clark are granted a behind-the-scenes look at the dangerous game of cat and mouse played by cops and cartels.

  
• 06.16.2023

  False Witness

  Reporter Heidi Davoren provides an extraordinary insight into a parenting dispute, where a mother and father come together after a Family Court psychologist harmed their family.

  
• 06.08.2023

  Grim Prospects | 02

  In part two of the investigation into the deaths of Ray and Jennie Kehlet, reporters Rebecca Trigger and Ash Davis examine the story of the last man to see the couple alive. And they speak to a police insider who raised...

  
• 06.01.2023

  Grim Prospects | 01

  Two campers go missing while prospecting for gold in the Western Australian outback.

  
• 05.25.2023

  The woman who offers one last chance for an Australian visa

  Australia's migrant workers can wait for years to find out whether they can stay here, and while they do they can become targets for opportunistic operators offering a short cut.

  
• 05.20.2023

  Remy was 12 when she became a drug dealer

  As a teenager, Remy learnt to survive by hustling on the streets of Parramatta.

  
• 05.11.2023

  The Fine Print

  The consumer genetic testing industry has become big business.

  
• 04.03.2023

  PRESENTS - Lazarus Heist series 2

  Background Briefing will be back in a few weeks.

  
• 03.23.2023

  Prisoner of the State

  In a nursing home lives an elderly man who is being held against his will.

  
• 03.17.2023

  The Psychedelic Rush

  Reporters Geoff Thompson and Annika Blau investigate how Australia became the first country to give scripts for trips.

  
• 03.09.2023

  Dead Man's Secrets | 02

  In the second and final episode of Dead Man's Secrets, reporter Josh Robertson investigates the grisly murder of the powerful Papuan executive who negotiated one of Australia’s biggest foreign assistance packages.