Background Briefing

With ex Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic about to face a war crimes trial in The Hague, one former British commander, Bob Stewart, returns to the scenes of atrocities he witnessed in Bosnia and talks to the victims who’ve been left behind. Bob Stewart’s journey is emotional and it reveals how people are struggling with the daily reality of living beside neighbours who 20 years ago were bitter enemies.

Political parties constantly narrow their campaigns to focus on key marginal seats, and they have to do it more cheaply and efficiently. It’s becoming harder to convince wary voters and the parties are looking for more direct approaches. Electronic ‘micro-targeting’ is the new frontier.

On six Torres Strait islands, tidal flooding is washing away everything from building foundations to ancestral graves. Mosquitoes are thriving, with a serious malaria outbreak on one island. The state and federal governments are reluctant to invest in seawalls for protection and residents say they won’t leave.

How far and how fast can electric cars go? That’s what most buyers want to know as the big car-makers talk up battery power and zero emissions. Meanwhile in the US and Australia public debate about the future of the car industry is caught in the old politics of subsidies and jobs.

There is fierce scientific debate over whether the policy of annual prescribed burning in Victoria will reduce the risk of another Black Saturday that took so many lives in February 2009.

A chemical spill at the Orica plant near Newcastle in NSW put the company in the spotlight and raised serious questions about its safety procedures and what it told the neighbouring residents. The Orica leak also highlights major health and safety issues around hazardous industries located on the doorstep of residential suburbs like Stockton, and whether there are adequate laws in place.

French-made PIP implants were taken off the market two years ago after a massive fraud was discovered: instead of using medical grade silicon the factory was filling the implants with cheaper industrial silicon. Many of them have burst and been removed and over 100,000 women around the world are waiting to find out what the health consequences might be. In Australia the medical watchdog (the TGA) is only now examining the suspect implants. Why has it taken to long?

As the new school year begins more than 50,000 Australian children will be kept at home, to be taught by their parents. The homeschooling movement is growing rapidly but the majority of the arrangements are illegal, because the parents refuse to register with education departments. The authorities appear reluctant to prosecute and there is a lack of compelling evidence to show that homeschooling offers better (or worse) education outcomes.

As foreign troops withdraw, will foreign miners move in? They’ve known of Afghanistan’s mineral wealth for a century but it hasn’t been safe or easy enough to extract it. Now Western companies, including Australian miners, are behind the geopolitical eight-ball as China and India lock up mining rights. Reporter, Stan Correy (Originally broadcast on the 18th December 2011)

Warlpiri woman Bess Nungarrayi Price gives a personal account of the way violence has ripped apart her family, and others, in Aboriginal communities of Central Australia. Bess and her white husband, Dave, argue passionately for the right of people in these communities to live without the fear of violence, and for children in remote areas to have access to a good quality education. Photo: Ann Arnold