Background Briefing

Britain has accumulated the world’s biggest stockpile of civilian plutonium expecting to turn it into a valuable next-generation nuclear fuel. Now it’s being called one of the most embarrassing failures in British industrial history, an enormously expensive and dangerous mountain of waste. Rob Broomby investigates.

In less than a fortnight, the small community of King Island will vote on whether a crucial part of Australia's clean energy future should proceed to the next stage. But the islanders are sharply divided, after Waubra Foundation CEO Dr Sarah Laurie visited the island making claims that wind turbines harm human health. Sarah Dingle investigates.

Wild dogs are killing the wool industry in Queensland. The dingo fence is useless, poison baiting isn’t working and the law that says land owners must control wild dogs isn’t enforced. Now dog numbers have reached epidemic proportions. Ian Townsend investigates. (This story includes an image some may find disturbing.)

Australian GPs reveal why they are risking their reputations by diagnosing patients with Lyme disease—from Borrelia bacteria that are not even supposed to be in Australia. The treatment, high-dose antibiotics, is alarming health authorities and the nation’s chief medical officer has formed an advisory committee to look into this controversial disease. Di Martin investigates.

The process of approving the use of animals in scientific experiments is in crisis, with animal welfare and scientific members on key ethics committees at loggerheads. Hagar Cohen investigates.

When the Liberal National Party swept to power in Queensland it proclaimed the most extensive rules in the country to deal with lobbying and conflicts of interest within its own ranks. The LNP wanted to avoid lobbying scandals that had plagued the Bligh Labor government. So why is the Newman government now caught in its own lobbying controversy? Stan Correy investigates.

The Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority has cast a net over clubs and players in our two biggest football codes as it probes the use of banned substances. But just how widespread is the use of performance enhancing drugs in professional sport in Australia, and how effective is ASADA at catching high-level drug cheats? David Mark investigates.

As the long term legacy of Thatcherism is being re-interpreted following the death of the Iron Lady, Background Briefing returns to 1980s Britain. In this program, first broadcast in 1989, Nick Franklin and the late Tony Barrell investigate the rise and rise of Margaret Thatcher.  (Originally broadcast 7 May 1989)

A third of Tasmania’s town water systems don’t meet national drinking water standards and residents in several towns have to queue at a communal tap. Why has the ‘clean, green’ state got such a problem with contaminated water? Ian Townsend investigates.