Background Briefing

After a 15-year-old schoolboy shot dead a police accountant at Parramatta police centre in Sydney last week, there's greater demand for answers as to why some young Australian Muslims are being driven into the arms of extremists.

A divisive, sand mining mayor has clashed with locals over an unusual sand mine tender. Ann Arnold heads to the Port Stephens region, north of Newcastle, where there's a longstanding network of developers and local politicians with a strong development agenda.

Thousands of single parent families have been pushed into poverty after having their payments reduced under the welfare-to-work policies of successive governments. After 10 years the workforce participation rate for sole parents has barely improved and a former senior minister admits the policy is too harsh. Rachel Carbonell reports.

Police in Darwin have jailed nearly 1,000 Aboriginal people under new public order laws that allow detention without an arrest warrant. Following a black death in custody, the coroner said the laws should be repealed because they perpetuate and entrench indigenous disadvantage. But the NT government is refusing to budge. So have 'paperless arrests' reduced crime? Wendy Carlisle investigates.

Hundreds of Australian authors pay thousands of dollars to 'vanity publishers', often based on unfulfilled promises that their books will be widely promoted and distributed here and overseas. Hagar Cohen investigates the dubious practices of one Australian publisher as she tries to find the authors’ books in any bookstore.

Up until the 1970s, generations of Aboriginal workers in WA had their wages systematically stolen over decades, and only a small minority received reparation—just $2,000 in 2012. Sarah Dingle reveals the secret calculations that recommended a much higher sum, and government efforts to minimise payouts.

It's going to take the reinvention of 10,000 farms to improve water quality and repair the Great Barrier Reef, and there's new evidence that sediment from farms producing Australia's favourite fruit—bananas—is a growing part of the problem. The bold plan to fix the reef will cost billions but is already facing funding cuts. Gregg Borschmann investigates.

Victoria's state emblem, the Leadbeater's possum, is one of the most critically endangered animals in Australia. Fire and logging have decimated its habitat, causing Leadbeater's numbers to plummet. A fierce and secretive political debate is now raging over whether the possum and the industry can both survive, or if one has to go. Rachel Carbonell has been on the trail of the possum and the people with the power to save it.

The explosion of online and mobile sports betting is producing a new cohort of problem gamblers, largely younger men who are being given inducements, free offers and giveaways from betting companies to keep them gambling on their favourite sports. Ann Arnold investigates.

The federal government says a huge Chinese coal mine it has approved on prime NSW farmland can be stopped at any time if it damages the underground water supply. Opponents say by then it would be too late and the risk of damage is too great. Wendy Carlisle investigates.