Background Briefing

From the cult of Kevin to the politics of knee-jerk opposition, the policies and strategies of the major parties are being decided by a handful of people, with debate discouraged, dissent quashed and policies more likely to fail. Di Martin reports.

Half of all adults in Tasmania cannot read or write properly, and many of their children are following in their footsteps as badly needed school reforms are frustrated. Sarah Dingle investigates.

Health and safety fears have restricted the growth of genetically modified foods for decades. But is a hungry world, a new generation of consumers and the weight of scientific evidence loosening the grip of the Frankenfoods curse? Ian Walker set aside his long standing antipathy towards GM foods to investigate.

There will be no Background Briefing program this week. In its place will be post-election analysis and interviews produced by the team at Sunday Extra.

More than a thousand asylum seekers have died trying to get to Australia by boat. But how many of them could have been saved? Australia’s search and rescue authorities stand accused of unnecessary delays, disregarding distress calls and passing responsibility to Indonesia, which is not equipped to carry out rescue operations. Jess Hill investigates.

The BBC's World Affairs Editor John Simpson has been visiting and reporting on China for a quarter of a century and in this program he returns to Beijing to talk to activists, academics and artists who are openly questioning whether Chinese communism can survive.

The BBC's World Affairs Editor John Simpson has been visiting and reporting on China for a quarter of a century and in this program he returns to Beijing to talk to activists, academics and artists who are openly questioning whether Chinese communism can survive.

For many baby boomers homelessness is just a couple of rent payments away. Up to a quarter of a million older Australians may be at risk. As Kylie Grey uncovers in this Background Briefing investigation homelessness has a new face. Have we left it too late for a radical re-think on how we house our ageing population?

It is the institution in which the vast majority of child sexual abuse occurs but the victims won’t be able to tell their stories at the upcoming royal commission. Children who are sexually abused by family members suffer the ultimate betrayal of trust, with nowhere else to go and no-one else to turn to. Sarah Dingle investigates their long search for justice.

The Australian Defence Force Academy has been dogged by controversy, from bastardisation rituals to social media sex scandals. This week James Woodford returns to ADFA, where he was in the first group of cadets in 1986, to see what’s changed and how defence force chiefs are addressing an entrenched sexist culture.