Background Briefing

Punch, kick, knee, elbow, choke, stomp, almost anything goes in a cage fight. It’s brutal, it’s legal, it’s popular and it’s a public safety time-bomb without adequate regulation.

One of Australia’s top music schools is in upheaval. Worsening debt and a very public fight over the direction of teaching has plunged the ANU School of Music into uncertainty and acrimony. Half the teaching staff will go. For some this is a battle between good and evil. For others it is an inevitable cultural shift, away from traditional classical music. Reporter: Di Martin. (Originally broadcast on 17th June 2012)

Unmanned aerial vehicles have spread from war zones to toy shops. Now anyone can use a drone to point a camera into your private spaces and privacy laws can’t stop them. James Woodford investigates. (Originally broadcast on 16 September 2012)

Matthew Barclay, Saxon Bird and Robert Gatenby all died while competing at national surf championship events on the Gold Coast. Their deaths occurred in different years but at the same beach, and all in heavy surf conditions. Were their deaths preventable? Did Surf Life Saving Australia fail in its duty of care? There’s grief, anger and calls for a Royal Commission. Reporter: Wendy Carlisle  (This program originally went to air on the 13th May 2012.)

There’s growing evidence that lead poisoning shaves IQ points in children and has an insidious effect on behaviour. While experts debate safe exposure, a boom in home renovations could increase the risks. The suburbs of Queensland flooded earlier this year are lead-dust hot spots but residents haven’t been warned. Reporter: Ian Townsend (Originally broadcast on the 6 May 2012)

Once a cattle empire, Henbury Station in Central Australia is now a multi-million dollar, carbon farming experiment. But with the cattle gone the neighbours are angry, and while the government says restoring land can be a good business, the future of this taxpayer assisted project is in doubt. Caddie Brain and Di Martin investigate the shift from cattle to carbon.

The claim that coal seam gas is 70% cleaner than coal is coming under renewed scrutiny as more science comes in. The government is now reviewing the situation, but in the meantime investors are getting the jitters over the real carbon exposure.  So why hasn’t the government insisted on better science? Reporter: Wendy Carlisle.